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SnO2 nanoparticles accompanied by various concentrations of Ce as dopant material were prepared to extend the optical absorption spectrum near the visible spectrum. The Ce-doped SnO2 NPs at 0.5% (w/w) exhibit significantly higher photocatalytic ability compared to pure SnO2. This enhancement has potential applications in environmental remediation, energy storage, and optoelectronic devices. The microstructures and optical properties of the prepared samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, EDS, SEM, and UV–vis DRS. The results showed that the nanoparticles are in the tetragonal rutile SnO2 phase. Increasing Ce concentration (over 0.5% (w/w)) shifted the absorption edge towards higher wavelengths and the band gap energy drops from 3.620 to 3.031 eV. The FTIR spectrum confirmed the O–Sn–O bond information in the synthesized samples. The SEM images showed the formation of nearly spherical nanoparticles. Ce-doped SnO2 NPs have smaller primary particles than SnO2 NPs. Reduction in the band gap due to an increase in defects by Ce doping is found and confirmed by the UV–Vis spectra. The existence of Sn and O elements was confirmed by the observed EDS spectra. A plausible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed for the degradation of Methylene blue under UV light to examine the photocatalytic activity of SnO2 and Ce-doped SnO2 NPs photocatalyst. The Ce-doped SnO2 NPs display improved photocatalytic activity compared to SnO2. The influence of Ce concentration doping on the electrical properties was observed at room temperature. Impedance decreases with the frequency and Ce concentration while ac conductivity is increases with the frequency and Ce concentration. The dielectric constant and the dielectric loss rise up with the Ce doping and decrease with the frequency. Among the synthesized samples, the Ce-doped SnO2 depict improved ability of photodegradation and the optimal ability of SnO2 nanoparticles was achieved at 0.5% Ce doping.

Organic materials from various sources have been commonly adopted as soil amendments to improve crop productivity. Phosphorus deficiency and fixation in alkaline calcareous soils drives a reduction in crop production. A two-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of rock phosphate enriched composts and chemical fertilizers both individually and in combination with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on wheat productivity and soil chemical and biological and biochemical properties. The present study demonstrates significant increments in crop agronomic and physiological parameters with Pseudomonas sp. inoculated RPEC1 (rock phosphate + poultry litter + Pseudomonas sp.) over the un-inoculated untreated control. However, among all other treatments i.e., RPEC2 (rock phosphate + poultry litter solubilized with Proteus sp.), RPC (rock phosphate + poultry litter), HDP (half dose inorganic P from Single Super Phosphate-SSP 18% P2O5) and SPLC (poultry litter only); RPEC1 remained the best by showing increases in soil chemical properties (available phosphorus, nitrate nitrogen, extractable potassium), biochemical properties (alkaline phosphatase activity) and biological properties (microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass phosphorus). Economic analysis in terms of Value Cost Ratio (VCR) showed that the seed inoculation with Pseudomonas sp. in combination with RPEC1 gave maximum VCR (3.23:1) followed by RPEC2 (2.61:1), FDP (2.37:1), HDP (2.05:1) and SPLC (2.03:1). It is concluded that inoculated rock phosphate (RP) enriched compost (RPEC1) can be a substitute to costly chemical fertilizers and seed inoculation with Pseudomonas sp. may further increase the efficiency of composts.

Nuclear receptor co-repressor (N-CoR) plays important role in transcriptional control mediated by several tumor suppressor proteins. Recently, we reported a role of misfolded-conformation dependent loss (MCDL) of N-CoR in the activation of oncogenic survival pathway in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Since N-CoR plays important role in cellular homeostasis in various tissues, therefore, we hypothesized that an APL like MCDL of N-CoR might also be involved in other malignancy. Indeed, our initial screening of N-CoR status in various leukemia and solid tumor cells revealed an APL like MCDL of N-CoR in primary and secondary tumor cells derived from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The NSCLC cell specific N-CoR loss could be blocked by Kaletra, a clinical grade protease inhibitor and by genistein, an inhibitor of N-CoR misfolding previously characterized by us. The misfolded N-CoR presented in NSCLC cells was linked to the amplification of ER stress and was subjected to degradation by NSCLC cell specific aberrant protease activity. In NSCLC cells, misfolded N-CoR was found to be associated with Hsc70, a molecular chaperone involved in chaperone mediated autophagy (CMA). Genetic and chemical inhibition of Lamp2A, a rate limiting factor of CMA, significantly blocked the loss of N-CoR in NSCLC cells, suggesting a crucial role of CMA in N-CoR degradation. These findings identify an important role of CMA-induced degradation of misfolded N-CoR in the neutralization of ER stress and suggest a possible role of misfolded N-CoR protein in the activation of oncogenic survival pathway in NSCLC cells.

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers causing a serious threat to the agro-ecological system, developing resistance to pest and declining food safety. Under current scenario, the application of bio-organic nutrients sources become imperative to sustain the productivity of arable farming. Thus to study the possible use of bioorganic sources of nutrients in soil fertility, crop quality and saving the application cost of chemical fertilizer, a pot experiment was conducted in green-house at Land Resources Research Institute, NARC Islamabad. Integrated effects of bio-organic fertilizers such as phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB), vermicompost (VC) along with chemical fertilizer was investigated on soil-plant nutrients contents, growth and yield of tomato. Post-harvest results showed that the integrated use of bio-organic fertilizers with chemical fertilizer significantly increased the agronomic yield (Plant height and chlorophyll content) and fruit yield (Number of fruits, fruit weight, fruit diameter and yield) in tomato. The maximum plant height (161.24cm), chlorophyll contents (61.2), number of fruits (19), fruit weight (55g), fruit diameter (45.6a) and fruit yield (1.39 Kg/plant) were recorded in the treatment T5 where VC+PSB+75%RD were applied and minimum in treatment T1 (control). Treatment T5 has increased 117% fruit yield over control. The highest N (2.05% and 2.89%), P (0.33% and 0.50%) and K (2.32% and 6.67%) concentration in shoot and fruit of tomato respectively were found in treatment T5 (VC+PSB+75%RD). Similarly, in soil the highest N (4 mg Kg-1), P (0.66mg Kg-1) and K (3.53mg Kg-1) was recorded in treatment T6 (VC+PSB+100RD). Thus, study results recommend that the integrated use of bio-organic sources with appropriate proportion of chemical/synthetic fertilizers is best option of fertilizer savings and to achieve maximum benefits regarding quality and yield.

The well-known solid-state reaction method is used for the synthesis of Tb doped LuGd2Ga2Al3O12 phosphor. XRD and SEM techniques are used for the phase and structural morphology of the synthesized phosphor. UV, X-ray and proton induced spectroscopy is used to study the luminescence properties. LuGd2Ga2Al3O12:Tb3+ phosphor shows its highest peak in green and blue region. The two major emission peaks correspond to 5D3→7FJ (at 480 to 510 nm, blue region) and 5D4→7FJ (at 535 to 565 nm, green region). Green emission is dominant; therefore, it may be used as an efficient green phosphor. The absorption spectra of the synthesized material matches well with the spectra of light emitting diodes (LEDs); therefore, it may have applications in LEDs. X-ray spectroscopic study suggests that this phosphor may have uses in medical applications, such as X-ray imaging. The synthesized phosphor exhibits 81% efficacy in comparison to the commercial plasma display panel material (Gd2O2S:Tb3+). The Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity diagram is obtained for this phosphor. The decay time of ms range is measured for the synthesized phosphor.

The nuclear receptor co-repressor (N-CoR) is a key component of the generic multi-protein complex involved in transcriptional control. Flt3, a key regulator of hematopoietic cell growth, is frequently deregulated in AML (acute myeloid leukemia). Here, we report that loss of N-CoR-mediated transcriptional control of Flt3 due to misfolding, contributes to malignant growth in AML of the M5 subtype (AML-M5). An analysis of hematopoietic genes in AML cells led to the identification of Flt3 as a transcriptional target of N-CoR. Flt3 level was inversely related to N-CoR status in various leukemia cells. N-CoR was associated with the Flt3 promoter in-vivo, and a reporter driven by the Flt3 promoter was effectively repressed by N-CoR. Blocking N-CoR loss with Genistein; an inhibitor of N-CoR misfolding, significantly down-regulated Flt3 levels regardless of the Flt3 receptor mutational status and promoted the differentiation of AML-M5 cells. While stimulation of the Flt3 receptor with the Flt3 ligand triggered N-CoR loss, Flt3 antibody mediated blockade of Flt3 ligand-receptor binding led to N-CoR stabilization. Genetic ablation of N-CoR potentiated Flt3 ligand induced proliferation of BA/F3 cells. These findings suggest that N-CoR-induced repression of Flt3 might be crucial for limiting the contribution of the Flt3 signaling pathway on the growth potential of leukemic cells and its deregulation due to N-CoR loss in AML-M5, could contribute to malignant growth by conferring a proliferative advantage to the leukemic blasts. Therapeutic restoration of N-CoR function could thus be a useful approach in restricting the contribution of the Flt3 signaling pathway in AML-M5 pathogenesis.

The nuclear receptor co-repressor (N-CoR) is a key component of the generic co-repressor complex that plays an important role in the control of cellular growth and differentiation. As shown by us recently, the growth suppressive function of N-CoR largely relies on its capacity to repress Flt3, a key regulator of cellular gorwth during normal and malignant hematopoesis. We further demonstrated how de-repression of Flt3 due to the misfolded conformation dependent loss (MCDL) of N-CoR contributed to malignant growth in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, the molecular mechanism underlying the MCDL of N-CoR and its implication in AML pathogenesis is not fully understood. Here, we report that Akt-induced phosphorylation of N-CoR at the consensus Akt motif is crucial for its misfolding and subsequent loss in AML (AML-M5). N-CoR displayed significantly higher level of serine specific phosphorylation in almost all AML-M5 derived cells and was subjected to processing by AML-M5 specific aberrant protease activity. To identify the kinase linked to N-CoR phosphorylation, a library of activated kinases was screened with the extracts of AML cells; leading to the identification of Akt as the putative kinase linked to N-CoR phosphorylation. Consistent with this finding, a constitutively active Akt consistently phosphorylated N-CoR leading to its misfolding; while the therapeutic and genetic ablation of Akt largely abrogated the MCDL of N-CoR in AML-M5 cells. Site directed mutagenic analysis of N-CoR identified serine 1450 as the crucial residue whose phosphorylation by Akt was essential for the misfolding and loss of N-CoR protein. Moreover, Akt-induced phosphorylation of N-CoR contributed to the de-repression of Flt3, suggesting a cross talk between Akt signaling and N-CoR misfolding pathway in the pathogenesis of AML-M5. The N-CoR misfolding pathway could be the common downstream thread of pleiotropic Akt signaling activated by various oncogenic insults in some subtypes of leukemia and solid tumors.

ThCu 2 X 2 structural, electrical, optical, and thermo-electric properties were analyzed using density functional theory, where X stands for N, P, As, Sb, and Bi substances. The energy bandgap is lowered by substituting Bi for the pnictogen components N. According to earlier calculations, all substances are semiconducting and have direct (G-G) and indirect (G-M) bandgaps between 2.49 eV and 0.90 eV. The X-s/p and Ba-f/d levels of the conduction and valence bands must strongly hybridize in order for electrical transport to occur. The dielectric function, ε 1 (0), as well as the static reflectivity, R (0), exhibit an inverse relationship with the energy bandgap (Eg). At temperatures between 300 K and 800 K, the thermo-electric features were investigated with the BoltzTraP code. Since electron transport is dominated by hole carriers, all substances are p -type materials that are thermo-electric.

Due to the high formation energy of Indium interstitial defect in the TiO2 lattice, the most probable location for Indium dopant is substitutional sites. Replacing Ti by In atom in the anatase TiO2 shifted the absorption edge of TiO2 towards visible regime. Indium doping tuned the band structure of TiO2 via creating In 5p states. The In 5p states are successfully coupled with the O 2p states reducing the band gap. Increasing In doping level in TiO2 improved the visible light absorption. Compensating the charge imbalance by oxygen vacancy provided compensated Indium doped TiO2 model. The creation of oxygen vacancy widened the band gap, blue shifted the absorption edge of TiO2 and declined the UV light absorption. The 2.08% In in TiO2 is the optimal Indium doping concentration, providing suitable band structure for the photoelectrochemical applications and stable geometrical configuration among the simulated models. Our results provide a reasonable explanation for the improved photoactivity of Indium doped TiO2.

Photoanode materials with optimized particle sizes, excellent surface area and dye loading capability are preferred in good-performance dye sensitized solar cells. Herein, we report on an efficient dye-sensitized mesoporous photoanode of Ti doped zinc oxide (Ti-ZnO) through a facile hydrothermal method. The crystallinity, morphology, surface area, optical and electrochemical properties of the Ti-ZnO were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. It was observed that Ti-ZnO nanoparticles with a high surface area of 131.85 m2 g−1 and a controlled band gap, exhibited considerably increased light harvesting efficiency, dye loading capability, and achieved comparable solar cell performance at a typical nanocrystalline ZnO photoanode.