n. e. quest volume 4, issue 4, january 2011

Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

NE Quest | VOL. 4 NO. 4 | JAN 2011 | 1



Newsletter

Of

NORTH EAST INDIA RESEARCH FORUM

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/northeast_india_research/ www.neindiaresearch.org



N.E. India Research Forum,

N.E. Quest, IYC-2011 and We

It is my immense pleasure to write the editorial page of N. E. Quest. In this regard I am thankful to Dr. Arindam Adhikari for giving me this opportunity to serve our forum. It is also my fortune that I am editing the first issue of N. E. Quest of the “International year of Chemistry, IYC” declared by United Nations. Through this editorial column I would like to bubble out some of my thoughts and feelings. IUPAC and United Nations realized that this is the time to dedicate and celebrate Chemistry as well as appreciate and attract people towards chemistry. Therefore the year 2011 is declared as IYC by United Nations. It is not only for the celebration of the hundred years of Marie Curie’s 2nd Nobel Prize for the discovery of Polonium and Radium (chemistry), but also 100th year of founding International Association of Chemistry. In addition to salute Marie Curie for her significant discovery, the IYC prospectus outline several goals for the year, out of which two major goals are a) increase public appreciation and b) attract young generation towards chemistry. As we know, majority of the members of this group are with chemistry background, also I hope other members also like and know ‘abc’ of chemistry. Therefore this is also the time for us to create appreciation, awareness among the young generation, attract them towards chemistry and make

them understand how chemistry can help for a sustainable future. Last year in Tinsukia District, Assam two of our esteemed forum members organized several lectures cum interactive programs, to create awareness towards Science and Technology among school students. Indeed, the idea of two members was great and should feel proud of them. On the eve of International Year of Chemistry-2011 it will be really great if we can organize some meetings or interactive sessions throughout North-east India. Especially the group of research scholars in the University of North-Eastern region can go to the schools / colleges interact with the younger people and share ideas and show the future of Chemistry.

As part of IYC, there are also scopes of submitting proposal to UN and IUPAC and one can utilize this opportunity for getting some funds to arrange meetings and others activities. I hope National Chemical Society or Regional Chemical Society has such program. We can go through it or may request and submit some proposal. Here again some of my thoughts… I did not hear about IIT until M. Sc. and couldn’t get any information of doing Ph.D abroad till I joined in IIT-Guwahati for Ph.D. This is due to lack of awareness among us and unavailability of proper information. The fast development of IT is creating a vast difference between us and our juniors. That’s sounds good if the new generation utilize the scope in right manner, however I still feel that the student of North-Eastern Region lacking far behind from other part of India. In that case we, the forum members through our forum can take initiative to bring forward our brothers and sisters. Indeed the creation of this group was a great idea and publishing the N. E. Quest was even more promising.


NE Quest | VOL. 4 NO. 4 | JAN 2011 |4

I am surprise to see that there is no North East India Research Forum cell in Gauhati University, which is regarded as the centre point for higher education in the N.E. Therefore I hereby take the opportunity to request you all to open the same in the esteemed university.

A community or Group has been created in cyberworld’s most popular social networking site, Facebook. There are lots of good example how Facebook help to know/communicate with each other. For instant, a group of Assamese has created a group named ‘Asomiyat Kotha Botora’, through which many Assamese people staying around the world have been connected. There have been lots of discussion about the Assamese language, culture, history and inturn tries to help each other. It would be worth mentioning here that main aim of creating Facebook group is to popularise North-East India Research forum and its activities with ease. At last not least I thank all of the forum members for helping me to bring out this issue. I am grateful to the editorial board for giving the final touch. I thank all the contributors of this issue which make it more fruitful. My heartfelt thank goes to Anirbanda (Mr. Anirban Adhikari) for designing the cover-page within very short time. Wish you all Happy New Year 2011, May God give you another successful year to your life. Also wish you belated happy “BHOGALI BIHU”.

Where is India or Hindi?

“Chemistry- our life our future” is the slogan for IYC 2011. The picture above is available in the website if IYC, where almost all language of the world except Hindi- the “Indian National Language” is written. There is also Bengali script. Now, is our national language Bengali or if it comes from Bangladesh then where is India?

Saitanya K Bharadwaj www.saitanya.blogspot.com



Contents 1. The Forum 6

2. Science News 10

3. North East Indian made us Proud 16

4. Members in News/Awards/Fellowship 17

5. Meet the Scientist 18

7. Article Section

A) Application of Mathematics (Invited) 20

Dr. Dambaru Bhatta, Texas, USA

B) International Year of Chemistry-How should We Celebrate? (Special) 32

Dr. Saitanya K Bharadwaj, Munich, Germany

C) A greener nanoscale and the challenges before the nano gypsies! 34

Mr. Rocktotpal Konwarh and Prof. Niranjan Karak, Tezpur University

D) Adopting Green Chemistry Protocol 38

Dr. Suvangshu Dutta, D.R. College, Assam

E) Impact of Theoretical Modelling in Studying Nanometarials 45

Mrs. Bulumoni Kalita, Tezpur University

F) Biological Function of Nitric Oxide 49

Mr. Aswini Kalita, IIT Guwahati

G) Polyphenols 51

Mr. Monoj Mon Kalita, Toklai Tea Research Center, Jorhat, Assam

8) Thesis Abstract 54

Development of Mesua Ferrea L. Seed Oil based Polyurethane Resins

Dr. Suvanshu Dutta, Tezpur University

9) Faces of the Issue 60

10) Reader’s page 62

11) Opportionity/Advertisement/ Conference 63

12) Through the Lenses of the Members 70



The Forum

North East India Research Forum was created on 13th

November 2004.

1. How we are growing. Every forum has to pass through difficult phases at the time of birth. NE India Research Forum is also no exception. At the very beginning, it was a march hardly with few members (from chemistry only) and today the forum comprised of a force of 380 elite members. Now we are in a position such that people voluntarily come and join the group irrespective of disciplines.

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100

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300

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0 20 40 60 80

Months

No

of

Mem

bers

Graph of no of members w.r.t. months

2. Discussions held in the forum • Necessity of directory of all the members

of the forum. • Possibility of organising conference in the

N. E. India. • Taking initiation on setting up of South

East Asian Scientific Institute. • On selection of Best paper award. • Let us introspect.

3. Poll conducted and results • North East India is lacking behind the rest

of the country due to- 1. Geographical constrain = 0% 2. Bad leadership = 40% 3. Lack of work culture = 36% 4. Corruption = 18%

5. Apathy from Central Govt. = 4%

• Which area of science is going to dominate by creating a great impact on society in next decade?

1. Nanoscience & nanotechnology = 22% 2. Biotechnology = 11% 3. Nanobiotechnology = 38% 4. Chemical Engineering = 0% 5. Medicine = 11% 6. Others = 16% 7. None = 0%

• Kindly let us know your view regarding the following topic. What activities of this group you like most?

1. Research articles = 33% 2.Information about vacancy/positions

available = 10% 3. Way to have a contact with all

members = 29% 4. Scientific discussions = 14% 5. Others = 2%

• Selection of name for Newsletter There were total 36 proposals submitted by members of the forum for the Newsletter. The name proposed by Mr. Abhishek Choudhury, N. E. QUEST received the maximum number of votes and hence it is accepted as the name of the Newsletter. • How often should we publish our

newsletter '' N. E. Quest’’? 1. Every 3 months = 61% 2. Every 6 months = 38% 3. Once a year = 0%

4. Editors of Previous NE-Quest Issues 1. Vol 1 Issue 1 April, 2007 Editor: Dr. Arindam Adhikari 2. Vol 1 Issue 2 July 2007



Editor: Dr. Tankeswar Nath 3. Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2007 Editor: Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur 4. Vol 1 Issue 4 January 2008 Editor: Dr. Pranjal Saikia 5. Vol 2 Issue 1 April 2008 Editor: Dr. Sasanka Deka 6. Vol 2 Issue 2 July 2008 Editor: Dr. Rashmi Rekha Devi 7. Vol 2 Issue 3 October 2008 Editor: Dr. Prodeep Phukan 8. Vol 2 Issue 4 January 2009 Editor: Dr. Manab Sharma 9. Vol 3 Issue 1 April 2009 Editor: Dr. Debananda Ningthoujam 10. Vol 3 Issue 2 July 2009 Editor: Dr. Robert Singh Thangjam 11. Vol 3 Issue 3 October 2009 Editor: Dr. Pankaj Bharali 12. Vol 3 Issue 4 January 2010 Editor: Dr. Abdul Wahab 13. Vol 4 Issue 1 April 2010 Editor: Dr. Utpal Bora 14. Vol 4 Issue 2 July 2010 Editor: Dr. Babita Baruwati 15. Vol 4 Issue 3 October July 2010 Editor: Dr. Shanta Laishram 16. Vol 4 Issue 4 January 2011 Editor: Dr. Saitanya K Bharadwaj (this issue) 5. A domain in the name of www.

neindiaresearch.org is booked. 6. Future activities Proper planning and consequent implementation always play an important role in every aspect. Some of the topics / activities / suggestions which were being discussed, time to time in the forum will get top priorities in our future activities. Those are mentioned here, • Preparing complete online database of

N.E. researchers with details. • Organising conference in the N.E. region-

proposed by Dr. Utpal Bora. • Research collaboration among forum

members. • Motivate student to opt for science

education.

• Help master’s students in doing projects in different organisation-proposed by Dr. Khirud Gogoi.

• Supporting schools in rural areas by different ways.

• Best paper awards. • Compilation of book on ‘Education

system of different countries’. Initiative for this project is taken by Dr. Mantu Bhuyan, NEIST, Jorhat, Assam

7. New activity • Guidelines for the members are being

formulated by the moderators of the NE India Research Forum. These guidelines are placed in the forum for discussion.

• HiMedia Laboratories Pvt. Ltd is willing to sponsor some future activities of the forum and have asked for space to advertise for their products in the N..E.Quest. Starting this issue (July 2009) N.E.Quest is providing one page for the advertisement. Details about this deal will be informed soon once finalised. Thanks to Dr. Robert Thangjam for his initiative in this matter.

• North East India Research Forum cell has been started in the following colleges, • Dibrugarh University

Contact: Dr. Jitu Ranjan Chetia

Dept. of Chemistry

Email: [email protected] • Tezpur University

Contact: Dr. Ashim J. Thakur

Dept. of Chemistry

Email: [email protected] Phone: +91 (3712) 267008/9/10 extn 5059

• Manipur University

Contact: Dr. Debananda S.

Ningthoujam

Coordinator, Microbial Biotech Lab

Reader & Head, Dept of

Biochemistry,

Manipur University, Canchipur,

Imphal, India Email:

[email protected]



• Mizoram University

Contact: Dr. Thangjam Robert Singh

Assistant Professor, Department of

Biotechnology, Mizoram University,

Aizawl, India

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +91 389-2330861/2330859 (O) • Govt. Science College, Jorhat

(Jorhat Institute of Technology)

Contact: Mr. Prasanta Kumar Bordoloi,

Senior Lecturer


Mobile: +91-9957036339 • Arya Vidyapeth College, Guwahati

Contact: Mr. Pabitra Kalita, Senior Lecturer Email:[email protected] Mobile No: +91-9613133859 & Dr. Pradip Bhattacharyya, Senior Lecturer Email: [email protected] Mobile No: +91-9864087494

• Pandu College, Pandu

Contact: Mr. Sanchay Jyoti Bora

Lecturer, Department of Chemistry

E-mail: [email protected]

Mobile: (+91) 9854078814 • Bajali college, Pathsala

Contact: Mr. Arindam Talukdar,

Lecturer, Environ. and Tourism Dept. Email: [email protected] & Mr. Satyendra Nath Kalita, Lecturer, Dept. of Zoology Email: [email protected]

To run the forum smoothly, to make it more organised and to speed up activities, formation of a committee/team is essential. The combined discussion of the moderators and senior members make the forum feel the importance of Advisors, co-ordinator, volunteer, webmasters etc. Of course it needs more discussion and will be approved by poll.

8. Guidelines for the forum

The moderators formulated some guidelines for the forum which are as follow. These guidelines were kept open for discussion in the forum. With time and need the guidelines will be changed.

1. Anybody in the forum can start a meaningful and constructive discussion after discussion with moderators.

2. Comments from the individual members do not necessarily reflect the view of the forum.

3. No single moderator can take a crucial decision. All decision would be taken by the moderators unanimously or together with the group as majority.

4. One should not write any massage to the forum addressing some particular members. It should always start with Dear all / Dear esteemed members etc.

5. If one has to write a mail to a particular member she/he should write personal mail.

6. Everyone has the freedom to speak but that doesn’t mean that one should attack personally. Of course we do have differences. There can be debate or discussion, but it should always be a healthy one. One’s personal comment should be written in such a way that it reflects his/her view only. It should not touch other's sentiments/emotions.

7. Whenever we are in a forum, society, home, members should be sensitive / caring enough to their comments so that it does not hurt sentiment of any second members.



8. Members should not post greetings messages (Bihu wish, New Year wish etc) to the forum.

9. Members should post authentic news only. The source of the news should be authentic. No controversial news or comment should be posted to the forum.

10. Our main aim is to discuss science to generate science consciousness, scientific temperament, sensitivity, awareness and research for the benefit of the mankind in general and North East India in particular.

11. In severe cases, moderators can take a hard decision unanimously or majority wise (may be through poll). (This point needs to be accepted by all the members).

While sending request or while fulfilling request for articles please follow the following points.

• The forum has been formed to help each other. When a member requests articles/literature to forum, members of the forum are always happy to help the person by supplying the articles. But at this stage we have to keep in mind that the article should be sent to the person who requested it, not to the whole forum as it creates lots of unnecessary mails in the message box of the forum. Moreover if it continues, it becomes an irritation also for many members.

• It is also the duty of the person who requests article to acknowledge the person who helped him/her. This can be done by writing ' Request fulfilled by......' in the subject area while composing the mail and write a thanking message in the main message board. Once this is done, then if some

other members want to send the article will know about the status of the request. This will also help members in keeping mailbox clean. For example

• Moreover sending articles (copyright protected articles) to the open forum violates copyright act. So please send the article to the person who requests not to everybody through this open forum.

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Good News: Resource Hub Centre for Ethnic Designs

Under the CSIR Rural Development Programme (11 Five Year Plan), the North-East Institute of Science & Technology, Jorhat and the Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai have jointly established a “Resource Hub Centre for Ethnic Designs of North-East” at the NEIST Substation, Imphal, Manipur with a cost of Rs 85.00 lakhs. The Centre was inaugurated by Director, NEIST, Jorhat on January 10, 2011 in presence of Shri Th Surendranath Singh, Executive Director, MASTEC, Imphal, Shri Kh Borkeshor Singh, Chairman, Institute of Cooperative Management, Imphal, Profs B Manihar Sharma & N Rajmuhon Singh of Manipur University and Dr K Chaoba Singh, Scientist of Regional Tasar Research Station, Imphal and 45 Entrepreneurs of Manipur. In the Inaugural Function, 15 novel products like ladies bags, purse, carrying bags, cards holder, etc. developed by CLRI, Chennai based on ethnic fabrics of North-east was displayed for visitors. Two experts of CLRI, Chennai namely, Shri G Sathyamoorthy and Shri S Aranganathan have demonstrated the equipments like 2-D CAD/CAM, digitizer, plotter-cutter, etc. installed at the Hub Centre and imparted training to the staffs of NEIST Substation, Imphal.



Science News

Top 10 Science News of 2010

1) Does Our Universe Live Inside a

Wormhole?

A long time ago, in a universe much larger than our own, a giant star collapsed. Its implosion crammed so much mass and energy together that it created a wormhole to another universe. And inside this wormhole, our own universe was born. It may seem fantastic, but a theoretical physicist claims that such a scenario could help answer some of the most perplexing questions in cosmology. A number of facets about our universe don't make sense. One is gravity. Scientists can't construct a mathematical formula that unites gravity with the three other basic forces of nature: the strong and weak nuclear forces and electromagnetism. Another problem is dark energy, the mysterious phenomenon that seems to be expanding our universe at an accelerating rate, even though gravity should be contracting it or at least slowing the expansion.

These conundrums may be a result of stopping the search for the riddle of the cosmos at the big bang, says Nikodem Poplawski of Indiana University in Bloomington. According to Poplawski's calculations, the collapse of a giant star in another universe could have created a wormhole, a space-time conduit to another universe. Between these two openings, conditions could have developed that were similar to those we associate with the big

bang, and therefore our universe could have formed within the wormhole.

2) These Dance Moves Are Irresistible

Humans aren't the only animals that move in special ways to lure females. Male fiddler crabs wave an outsized claw to show off, and male hummingbirds display their flying prowess with a flamboyant mating dive. These moves probably show off their strength and motor skills. Evolutionary psychologist Nick Neave of Northumbria University in Newcastle Upon Tyne wondered whether there was something about male human dancing that impressed females as well.

The researchers stuck 38 reflective markers to the joints and other body parts of 30 male students at Northumbria University. Then they asked the guys to dance for 30 seconds as if they were in a nightclub, while a thumping drum beat played over speakers. Heterosexual women watched the videos and rated them according to whether the man was a good dancer or a bad dancer. The most important factor to the women was how much the man moved his head, neck, and torso.

The team expected to see a lot of action in the hands and feet. "Legs and arms we thought would be really important, and they're not, apart from the right knee," says Neave. He thinks that's because most people are right-footed—so they use their left leg for balance and execute fancy moves with the right. He and his colleagues think dance is an honest signal to women of the man's strength and health, just as it is in crabs and hummingbirds.



3) Oil Drop Navigates Complex Maze

Scientists have found a way to make simple droplets of oil navigate complex labyrinths with the same skill as laboratory rodents. The advance could help researchers devise better ways to solve other mazelike problems, from rooting out cancer in the body to mapping paths through traffic jams.

Physical chemist Bartosz Grzybowski of Northwestern University in Evanston,

Illinois, and

colleagues hit upon the droplets while trying to devise novel cancer therapies. Scientists have developed a variety of ways to get cancer drugs into the body--including nanoparticles and liposomes--but all face the same obstacle: It's hard to navigate the body's maze of vessels and tissues to seek out and destroy hidden cancers.

Grzybowski notes that cancers are more acidic than the rest of the body, so--like the maze droplets--one could potentially design drug vehicles to follow the acid-base gradient toward the cancer cells.

4) Is Your Dog Pessimistic?

About a third of dogs display some kind of behavior problem when their owners leave home, like howling, peeing on the floor, or chewing up remote controls. The study was part of a project funded by the U.K.-based Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which wanted to devise a test to predict whether shelter dogs are likely to have problems with separation after they're adopted.

Blackwell and her colleagues studied the moods of 24 dogs at two shelters in

southwest England. Dogs that howled, scratched, relieved themselves, or showed other separation-related behaviors were also those shown to be more pessimistic, a sign that they're unhappy animals. "So many people think [separation-related behavior] is just something dogs do," says Blackwell. They think the dog is angry the owner is leaving, say, and exacting its revenge on the owner's slippers.

5) Tiny 'Flying Saucers' Could Save

Earth from Global Warming

Using a trick of sunlight itself, tiny metallic disks could be levitated to the stratosphere where they would shade Earth's surface and counteract the effects of global warming. But even the scientist who dreamed up the idea says the little saucers should be used only as a last resort, if efforts to stem global warming by limiting the build-up of heat-trapping green house gases fails. This phenomenon called photophoresis, in which the movement of a particle in a gas is affect by light shining on the particle and warming it. For example, suppose a disk-shaped particle is warmer than the surrounding air and its top consists of a different material than its bottom. Differences in the way the two materials react with light cause gas molecules to push the object upward. In nature, photophoresis makes particles like silicate dust migrate up and down in the atmosphere, and it explains how "solar mills" like the one in the illustration spin.

Now, physicist David Keith of the University of Calgary in Canada proposes using the effect to control the climate. He envisions cranking out scads of 20-nanometer-wide nanodisks whose tops are made of aluminum and whose bottoms are made of barium titanate.



Because the barium titanate more readily transmits heat and energy to impinging air molecules than the aluminum, the push on the bottom of the disk would be greater than on the top when it is warmed by sunlight. So that pressure would push it upward to a height of 40 to 50 kilometers, just out of the stratosphere. In addition, because barium titanate can be electrically polarized, electric fields in the atmosphere would stabilize the disks and keep them from flipping over. The particles would sink slowly during the night but rise during the day. And the aluminum tops, protected with a thin coating, would reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the planet. “I've invented a flying saucer,” Keith jokes.

6) The Spiky Penis Gets the Girl

When it came to insect penises, Charles Darwin had it right. The famed naturalist suspected that insect genitalia, which are frequently festooned with bizarre combinations of hooks, spines, and knobs, essentially functioned like peacock tails. That is, they helped males beat out their rivals for females. Now, researchers have confirmed this hypothesis by zapping fly penises with a laser.

Enter laser beams. Evolutionary ecologist Michal Polak of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and entomologist Arash Rashed now of the University of California, Berkeley, modified a laser commonly used to cut very small things, like the nerve cells of nematodes, so that it could zap off the hooks on fruit fly penises.

7) How to Train Your Robot (to Lie)

Computer scientists Alan Wagner and Ronald Arkin of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta came up with an algorithm that set two conditions: First, a robot had to be in conflict with someone

or something else. And second, it had to be able to influence its adversary's actions. If both conditions checked out, the robot was cleared to lie.

Then they tested the idea in two-wheeled, camera-equipped robots that were playing. The "hider" robot had to choose one of three compartments in which to conceal itself. The pathway to each was blocked by a green, red, or blue marker. Whichever way the robot went, it knocked down one marker. After some training, the hider bot and seeker bot figured out that a fallen marker indicated which direction the hider had gone. But there was one catch: The seeker didn't know the hider bot had been programmed to lie.

When the game began, the hider randomly chose one of the compartments. Then its deceptive programming kicked in and told it to go another direction first—knocking over a different marker—and then turn back toward its choice. The seeker, seeing the fallen marker and suspecting no trickery, would follow the fake trail and leave the hider undiscovered.

8) The Shocking Truth about Running

Shoes

Haile Gebrselassie, the world's fastest marathoner, once said of his early career, "When I wore shoes, it was difficult." A new study reveals why: Humans run differently in bare feet. Researchers have discovered that sneakers and other sports shoes alter our natural gait, which normally protects us from the impact of running. Daniel Lieberman and colleagues looked at more than 200 shod and unshod runners in the United States and the Rift Valley Province of Kenya, which is known for its great endurance runners. The volunteers represented a spectrum of shoe experience, including



adults who had grown up wearing shoes, those who had grown up running shoeless but who now wore shoes, and those who had never worn shoes at all. Lieberman's team arranged a trial in which each group ran shod (either in ASICS GEL-Cumulus 10s or in their own shoes) and bare and measured their running gait and the impact on their bodies.

The researchers noticed a difference right away. Whereas shod runners tended to land on the heel of the foot, barefoot runners landed on the ball of the foot or with a flat foot. The unshod runners' style causes more flex in the foot's springlike arch, ankle, and knee and engages more foot and calf muscles, blunting the impact on the body and making for a more comfortable "ride."

9) Superaccurate Clocks Confirm Your

Hair Is Aging Faster Than Your

Toenails

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, a clock on the floor ought to run very slightly slower than an identical one on top of a step stool because the lower clock nestles deeper into Earth's gravitational field. Now, physicists have demonstrated this effect using two super-accurate clocks and hoisting one several centimeters above the other. It's the first time scientists have used clocks to show that time flies faster for your nose than for your navel.

According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity comes about because massive things like Earth stretch the fabric of space and time. As a result, a clock at lower altitude and, hence, lower gravitational energy, should run slower than one at higher altitude—by about 3 microseconds per year per kilometer of elevation. Such seemingly nonsensical predictions have long since been confirmed by comparing ultra-accurate

atomic clocks on the ground with those in high-flying jets. And the satellite-based global position system takes them into account. Now Chin-wen Chou, Till Rosenband, and colleagues at the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, have detected changes in the passage of time caused by speeds of less than 10 meters per second and height changes of less than a meter, using a new type of atomic clock called an optical clock.

the NIST researchers' clock uses laser light with a frequency of 1,120,000 billion cycles per second to drive a higher-energy jump called an optical transition in a single aluminum ion held in an elaborate trap. The cesium standard is accurate to three parts in 10 million billion; the new aluminum clock has an accuracy nearly 40 times better. That extra accuracy makes it possible to demonstrate the effect of relativity on a more human scale. The researchers built two aluminum clocks, and to test the velocity effect they set the ion in one jiggling back and forth in its trap with a speed as low as 4 meters per second. They were able to resolve the 2-parts-in-10-million-billion slowing that motion caused in the clock with the moving ion. To test the gravity effect, the physicists started with one clock 17 centimeters below the other and then raised the first clock by 33 centimeters. This time they detected a 4-parts-in-100-million-billion shift in the frequency of the raised clock, as predicted by the theory of general relativity.

10) The Secret of Turtle Island

In the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, there's an area local fishermen call "Turtle Island." It's real enough, but you'd be foolish to try to sail there. The



Other News

island is never in precisely the same place, and it changes size from one minute to the next. In fact, you never know when its gleaming shore might disappear altogether, because it's made up entirely of the half-exposed shells of basking loggerhead sea turtles.

Hochscheid and colleagues collected 10 loggerheads from various locations in the Mediterranean and glued tracking devices—small black boxes with flexible antennas—to their shells. Over a year of observations, it became clear why the turtles had developed a reputation as bottom dwellers. The tagged loggerheads spent about 98% of their time underwater. And when they did come up, it was irregularly, sometimes twice in 2 days and sometimes not for a week.

There was a hint to the reason for the behavior, however. The turtles almost always surfaced during the day, 82% of the time, in fact, and mostly at about midday when the sunlight is most direct. Another clue: Daylight basking sessions almost always occurred after the turtles had returned from a dive below the thermocline, the transitional zone between the sun-warmed shallows and frigid depths. Hochscheid believes that daylight surfacing helps the loggerheads warm up quickly; she speculates it could also aid digestion, though she's not sure how.

Night surfacing, on the other hand, almost always followed dives that were long enough to cause the turtles to run out of air, a duration that the team calculated based on the turtles' weight. Night sessions, then, would help the turtles clear

large amounts of lactic acid, produced when the turtles keep swimming when they've run out of oxygen.

For more information please visit http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/12/top-10-sciencenows-from-2010.html?etoc#panel-2

Scientists breed a mouse that Sing

A team of scientist of University of Osaka, Japan breeds a mouse that can tweet like a bird. The genetically engineered mouse will shed light on the origin of human language-they hope! "Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen," lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura said.

"We checked the newly born mice one by one... One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird," he said, noting that the "singing mouse" was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations.

Read more:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/

Want to Ace Your Test? Share Your

Feelings

Your entire future depends on this exam. Score high, and you'll get into the college of your dreams. Score low, it's best not to think about that right now.



And yet it's all you can think about. As the clock ticks and those around you scribble hard with their pencils, you stare at the test and your mind goes blank. You're choking.

You might have been better off writing down your feelings first, according to research by psychologists Gerardo Ramirez and Sian Beilock of the University of Chicago in Illinois. Their study, shows that students who spend just 10 minutes writing about their worries before a test score higher than those who write about something else or who write nothing. The exercise is especially effective for students who say they habitually choke under pressure.

A Universal Marker for Tumor Cells

Cancer researchers have discovered a new genetic abnormality in tumor cells that sets them apart from normal cells. In mice and humans, cancer cells cranked out large amounts of a specific type of RNA that had been ignored until now. The discovery could shed light on how cancer develops, and it could give pathologists a new marker for detecting cancerous cells in a biopsy.

Postdoctoral researcher David Ting and colleagues in the lab of cancer geneticist Daniel Haber of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found their new marker by using a next-generation sequencing machine to measure the RNA molecules, or transcripts, that are encoded by a cancer cell's DNA. Unlike traditional microarrays dotted with DNA probes that measure the activity of a subset of a cell's 20,000 genes, this "digital" gene expression analysis tallied all RNA transcripts.

Read More:

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01

Meet the Squidworm

Recently Scientists have discovered a new creature at the western edge Pacific Ocean and named as “Squidworm”. The researchers used a remotely operated vehicle to find Teuthidodrilus samae at

the bottom of the Celebes Sea off the eastern coast of Borneo http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/

Alcoholic Beverages Induce

Superconductivity

Wine can help keep conversation

flowing at a dinner party. And now it

looks like that wine may aid in materials

science as well. Japanese researchers

discovered that hot alcoholic beverages

induce superconductivity in iron-based

compounds. These compounds can

become superconducting by being

exposed to oxygen, but it takes months.

Scientists have been searching for a way

to speed that up.

For more information visit: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=alcoholic-beverages-induce-supercon-11-03-08 “Good communication can make you a leader and a better scientist” Nancy Baron.



Northeast Indians make us Proud

Dr. Dambaru Bhatta is presently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, The University of Texas Pan-American, USA. He was debuted in the historical place “Patharighat”, Sipajhar, Darrang, Assam. He was honored with B.Sc from Cotton College Guwahati in 1883 and M.Sc from Delhi University in 1985 in Mathematics. Thereafter he worked at Hansraj College for a year and joined in the geophysics department of KDMIPE, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Dehradun, India as mathematician. Afterwards he moved to Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada for Ph.D and completed the same in Applied Mathematics in 1995. His thesis work involved computation of wave loads on offshore structures. Then he worked for one and half year as a post-doctorate at the same university on finite element modeling and computation of heat transfer involving crystals growth. Then he worked as a software engineer/developer for various companies in Montreal, Ottawa, and Atlanta. He taught mathematics at Louisiana State University Alexandria, LA for one year prior to joining UTPA. He is reachable at [email protected].

Dr. Biprajit Sarkar, borned in 1977 in Coochbehar, India, was educated at the St. Mary's School (Barpeta Road) and Cotton College, Guwahati, Assam. He received his B. Sc. in 1999 from University of Delhi. He was honored with M.Sc from IIT Bombay in 2001. Then he moved Germany and received Ph. D in 2005 from University of Stuttgart, Germany. After completing a postdoctoral period at the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, he started his habilitation at the University of Stuttgart in August 2006. Currently he is working as Assistant Professor Institute for Inorganic Chemistry of Stuttgart University and his research area is Oraganometalic chemistry. He is reachable at [email protected] and his home page is http://www.iac.uni-stuttgart.de/Arbeitskreise/AKSarkar/people%20-20biprajit_sarkar_deutsch.htm. He will happy to help northeast Indian students!

Indian mathematicians' biggest invention was the use of zero as a placeholder, to make it easier to add and multiply numbers. Our word "zero" comes from the Sanskrit word meaning "nothing."

"Genious only means an infinite capacity for taking pains"-Jane Hokins



Members in News/Awards/Fellowship

1) Dr. Diganta Kalita, has joined as Post Doctoral Fellow in the laboratory Prof

Debbie C Crans, at the Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, USA. Recently he has also visited Department of Chemistry, University of Memphis, USA as Visiting Research Fellow after completion of his first Post Doctoral research work from the Division of Genetic Medicine at Vanderbilt University, USA. Dr Kalita received his Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences from Tezpur University, India, in 2009, under the guidance of Dr. Nashreen S. Islam for his thesis “Polymer Anchored Vanadium(V) Compounds : Synthesis and Studies on Their Redox and Biochemical Properties”.

2) Dr. Saitanya K Bharadwaj has received 2nd best thesis awards of “2010 Eli Lilly and Company Asia Outstanding thesis awards” for his thesis “ Synthesis,

Structural Evaluation and Studies of reactivites of Heteroperoxovanadates (V)

and Development of Solid Acid Catalysts for organic Transformations” which was submitted and received his Ph.D in 2009 from IITGuwahati.

3) Mr. Harekrishna Deka is pleased to accept a postdoc offer from the

University of Guelph, Canada. He has joined in the same in the first week of March 2011. He has recently defended his thesis at the department of Chemical Science, Tezpur University.

4) Dr. Bolin Chetia has been awarded with Ph.D by the IIT Guwahati for his thesis

“Molecular recognition and metallo-supramolecular complex forming ability of some tridentate ligands and oligomers”. He is currently working as Assiatant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Dibrugargh University.



“Without Chemistry Human Civilization could not

have developed” An old man is walking through the corridor carrying some chemical…Generally this is the time for that age is to sit somewhere or take retirement!!!...I nodded down my head with a gasture of respect when I came to know that the person is none other than Dr. K. Öfele, whose name I have been finding in several publications in 1st or 2nd Reference for his discovery of first Metal-NHC complexes in 1968. Thereafter I was trying to talk to him and finally I could make out an appointment. I also informed him about our forum and NE Quest and here is some of the conversation with Dr. Öfele. SKB: At the outset, I am from the place where you will see different colors of life within

a short distance, observe strong unity with great diversity, find “Switzerland of Asia”, from where you can see the Himalayas, and lastly the place from where you get most favorite Assam and Darjeeling tea!, called North-east India, comprise with 7 states (now 8). Some of us, Northeast Indians, had created a group “Northeast India Research forum” with the aim of creating mainly science awareness among the younger generation, help in taking them up to the world, help each other etc. Also you will be pleased to know that we have an online magazine (Quarterly in a year). I will be grateful to convey your message to my people for whom it might be difficult to meet you personally. First I would like to ask your experience with research, almost all who is working on NHC-chemistry write your name in the first or second reference due to your fabulous discovery of Metal-NHC complex in 1968. How did it come to your mind and how did you confirm that this was the right product, because I think the research facility was not so well equipped as today. Was it hard to publish your work? What was the impact that time?

Dr. Oefele: During the middle sixties I was studying the synthesis and the reactions of transition metal sandwich-complexes with polycyclic and heterocyclic aromatic and unsaturated compounds. Within these studies I found that N-alkylpyridinium cations by reaction with carbonylmetallate anions underwent reduction to dihydropyridines forming metal sandwich-complexes. On applying this reaction to related heterocyclic compounds it turned out that imidazolium cations had reacted under deprotonation creating a new type of compounds, obviously related to E. O. Fischers carbene complexes. Discussions with Prof. Fischer’s carbene group and detailed analytical and spectroscopic investigations convinced. The interest in the first publications and presentations at different meetings was very high. It was not so difficult to identify the product as Prof. Fischer group was well equipped with all modern facilities.

SKB: Did you feel that your work would be leading today NHC chemistry? Dr. Oefele: Within a few years it turned out that with the first NHC-complexes of

Wanzlick and I opened a wide field of new stable metal carbene complexes, involving different heterocyclic as well as carbocyclic carbene ligands. Off course, the

Meet the Scientist By Dr. Saitanya K Bharadwaj Interview



preparation methods during the first time were limited. While Wanzlicks work on mercury complexes was not followed by subsequent publications, the big group of M. F. Lappert at the University of Sussex in 1973 published another method to prepare NHC-complexes, starting with electron rich olefins. The new carbene ligands derived from five membered heterocycles with two or more heteroatoms (N, S) soon proved to be able to form very stable complexes with a lot of transition metals, and different from the so called “Fischer”and “Schrock”-carbene ligands.

SKB: There was a big gap until 1992 when Prof. Arduengo isolated free carbene and then from 1995 when Prof. Hermann started catalysis. What makes this gap?

Dr. Oefele: Up to the beginning nineties just Prof. Lapperts group and I essentially were continuing studies on the synthesis, properties and reactions of NHC-complexes. After Arduengos pioneering method to prepare the free NHCs, a lot of chemists got interested in the application of these now easily available ligands in metal complex chemistry. Prof. Herrmann, whose group I had joined in 1984, during the middle nineties decided to include NHC-complexes into his work on catalytically active metal complexes.

SKB: At the same time Dr. Wanzlick had discovered with different metal. Do you think its like miracle that same idea came to different people at same time? There are several examples like this.

Dr. Oefele: As mentioned above, at that time I was not interested in carbene complexes, while Wanzlicks attention was directed to the search for stable carbenes derived from imidazole and related heterocyclic compounds. During systematic studies on cationic aromatic heterocycles I attained to the chemistry of NHC-complexes actually without intention. But soon I recognized the importance of this accident.

SKB: You are coming to the lab and working till now. I was surprise to see you one day buying some chemicals. What makes you to work till today?

Dr. Oefele: At present I am busy with cleaning the benches in my former labs, especially in the autoclave rooms. I need some chemicals to work up several old substances and clean apparatus. About one year ago I ended experimental work in the lab.

SKB: Do you think continuous involvement in research affected your personal life? Dr. Oefele: The involvement in research teached me in any strange situation to ask why

and what is the reason although not always I could find a satisfactory answer. SKB: Share some experience with Prof. E.O. Fischer. Dr. Öfele: It was great experience! He never forced to work, there were weekly seminar

and where we all share our reseach problems and finding. Prof. Fischer was not married, he considered his group as his family. In holidays, we, the group used to go his home in Austria and celebrated, enjoyed the time, had lots of fun!!!

SKB: This year UN and IUPAC decided to celebrate “International Year of Chemistry-2011”. It is thought that the central of science, ie, Chemistry is the way to solve most of global problems by practicing it. What do you think about that? Your hard-working ability, continuous life long involvement in research will definitely encourage us and our young generation; however I would like to request you to give message to them.

Dr. Oefele: Nowadays, chemistry in the public often is associated by less informed people with “poison”, “pollution” and “ecological disaster”. It is necessary to help especially young people to realize and to understand, that life is totally based on chemical processes and without chemistry human civilization could not have

developed. [See page 44 for short biography of Dr. K. Öfele]



Article Section

Applications of Mathematics Dambaru Bhatta Department of Mathematics, The University of Texas-Pan American, Texas, USA Email: [email protected]

Mathematics is a fascinating and amazing subject. It has a very long history. Mathematics evolves over a long period of time. Number system came to existence when people started counting during early stage of human civilization. Mathematics may not be a cup of tree for everybody, but it is well known that to do anything one always needs some kind of mathematics. Mathematics has been used to solve many real world applications. Applied mathematics is an area of mathematics where mathematics is taught from the perspective of various applications. It is one of the greatest tools of modern civilization. It is very difficult to include a complete list of areas where mathematics is used. Mathematics is a foundation of all sciences. The usefulness of mathematics is very subjective. For many it is seen in terms of the arithmetic skills which are required at home, in the office or workplace, some see mathematics as the basis of scientific development and modern technology while some emphasize the increasing use of mathematical techniques as a management tool in commerce and industry.

Areas that use applied mathematics: Some of the areas that use mathematics include aeronautical/aerospace engineering, art, architecture, astrophysics, astronomy, banking, bio-math, bio-technology, business,

chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, computer science, control theory, cryptography, economics, electrical engineering, electromagnetic, finance, fluid mechanics, fractals, games, genetics, geophysics, health science, hydrodynamics, image processing, industrial engineering, information technology, investment, measurements, mechanical engineering, mathematical modelling, medical science, music, nano-technology, nature, oceanography, oil industry, operation research, optics, optimization, petroleum engineering, physics, reservoir engineering, space science, signal processing, seismology, statistics, thermodynamics, tsunami, wave theory.

Where applied mathematicians can work: Applied Mathematicians use theories and techniques, such as mathematical modeling and computational methods, to formulate and solve practical problems in business, government, engineering, and the physical, life, and social sciences. For example, they may analyze the most efficient way to schedule airline routes between cities, the effects and safety of new drugs, the aerodynamic characteristics of an experimental automobile, or the cost-effectiveness of alternative manufacturing processes. Applied mathematicians working in industrial research and development may develop or enhance mathematical methods when solving a difficult

Invited



problem. Some mathematicians, called cryptanalysts, analyze and decipher encryption systems—codes—designed to transmit military, political, financial, or law-enforcement-related information. Applied mathematicians start with a practical problem, envision its separate elements, and then reduce the elements to mathematical variables. They often use computers to analyze relationships among the variables, and they solve complex problems by developing models with alternative solutions. Individuals with titles other than mathematician also do work in applied mathematics. In fact, because mathematics is the foundation on which so many others academic disciplines are built, the number of workers using mathematical techniques is much greater than the number formally called mathematicians. For example, engineers, computer scientists, physicists, and economists are among those who use mathematics extensively. Some professionals, including statisticians, actuaries, and operations research analysts, are actually specialists in a particular branch of mathematics. Applied mathematicians frequently are required to collaborate with other workers in their organizations to find common solutions to problems. Work environment: Mathematicians usually work in comfortable offices. They often are part of interdisciplinary teams that may include economists, engineers, computer scientists, physicists, technicians, and others. Deadlines, overtime work, special requests for information or analysis, and prolonged travel to attend seminars or conferences may be part of their jobs. Mathematicians who work in academia usually have a mix of teaching and research responsibilities. These mathematicians may conduct research by themselves or in close collaboration with

other mathematicians. Collaborators may work together at the same institution or from different locations, using technology such as e-mail to communicate. Mathematicians in academia also may be aided by graduate students. A Ph.D. degree in mathematics usually is the minimum educational requirement for prospective mathematicians, except in the Federal Government.

Education and skill needed: In private industry, candidates for mathematician jobs typically need a Ph.D., although there may be opportunities for those with a master's degree. Most of the positions designated for mathematicians are in research-and-development laboratories, as part of technical teams. In the Federal Government, entry-level job candidates usually must have at least a bachelor's degree with a major in mathematics or 24 semester hours of mathematics courses. Outside the Federal Government, bachelor's degree holders in mathematics usually are not qualified for most jobs, and many seek advanced degrees in mathematics or a related discipline. Most colleges and universities offer a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and many universities offer master's and doctoral degrees in applied mathematics. Courses usually required for these programs include calculus, differential equations, and linear and abstract algebra. Additional courses might include probability theory and statistics, mathematical analysis, numerical analysis, topology, discrete mathematics, and mathematical logic. In graduate programs, students also conduct research and take advanced courses, usually specializing in a subfield of mathematics. For jobs in applied mathematics, training in the field in which mathematics will be used is



very important. Mathematics is used extensively in physics, actuarial science, statistics, engineering, and operations research. Computer science, business and industrial management, economics, finance, chemistry, geology, life sciences, and behavioral sciences are likewise dependent on applied mathematics. Mathematicians also should have substantial knowledge of computer programming, because most complex mathematical computation and much mathematical modeling are done on a computer. Mathematicians need to have good reasoning to identify, analyze, and apply basic principles to technical problems. Communication skills also are important, because mathematicians must be able to interact and discuss proposed solutions with people who may not have extensive knowledge of mathematics. Now some specific fields where applied mathematics plays a significant role are presented here.

Aerospace Engineering: Aeronautical/ Aerospace Engineering is one of the most challenging fields of engineering with a wide scope for growth. It specializes in the designing, construction, development, testing, operation and maintenance of both commercial and military aircraft, spacecrafts and their components as well as satellites and missiles. As Aerospace engineering involves design and manufacture of very high technology systems, the job requires manual, technical as well as mechanical aptitude. One needs to be alert, have an eye for detail and should have a high level of mathematical precision to be successful. “Without a strong math and science background, today’s technician is not likely to progress far beyond basic line maintenance” is comment made by a director of an aviation company.

Mathematics plays a huge role in the day-to-day activities of aircraft mechanics. The basic principles of algebra, trigonometry and even calculus are applied towards ensuring the airworthiness of the aircraft and the safety of the crew.” These comments were made by the head of the Aircraft Services Branch of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Flight vehicles undergo severe conditions such as differences in atmospheric pressure, and temperature, with structural loads applied upon vehicle components. The development and manufacturing of a modern flight vehicle is an extremely complex process and demands careful balance and compromise between abilities, design, available technology and costs. You can expect to have great deal of usage of mathematics in Aerospace Engineering such as adaptive high-order methods in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It covers several widely used, and still intensively researched methods, including the discontinuous Galerkin, differential quadrature, residual distribution, spectral volume, spectral difference, flux reconstruction, and lifting collocation penalty methods.

Art and Architecture: Mathematics is essential to the study and practice of Architecture. Golden ratio has been used in art and architecture for centuries. Shapes proportional to the golden ratio are considered aesthetically pleasant to the eye as it suggests a balance between symmetry and asymmetry. Mathematics is indispensable to the understanding of structural concepts and calculations. Symmetry and patterns are important in ornamental art in all cultures. Egyptian pyramids are one example of a usage of geometry. To produce structures that are functional as well as models of



architectural beauty, designers must apply principles of mathematics in their work. Scale drawings, commonly known as plans are used as patterns in the construction of buildings. Proper ratios and proportions relate each feature of a building with every other one and with the whole structure to obtain a pleasing appearance. The angles of the roof, the thickness of a wall, the amount of materials that will be used, calculating the exact location of a building and even the number of detail, these all includes math. While it should most surely be a concern that buildings do not fall over when people enter them, the role of mathematics in architecture extends beyond the scope of static equilibrium problems from mechanics. There are various mathematical tools like partial derivatives, multiple integrals, and systems of differential equations that can be used to mathematically describe surfaces for the adaption of drawings to computer software, maximize the volume of a room given certain constraints, maximize the amount of sunlight that enters a room on any given day, etc.

Banking, Business and Economics: Math is also useful in terms of saving money in the bank as people need to be able to calculate and weigh their options in order to gain maximum interest. Economics and finance also make use of statistical tools, especially time-series analysis; some topics, such as voting theory, are more combinatorial. Accountants assist businesses by working on their taxes and planning for upcoming years. They work with tax codes and forms, use formulas for measuring interest, and spend a considerable amount of energy organizing paperwork. Mathematicians can build models to help explain and

predict the behavior of financial markets. This year’s Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM) organized by American Mathematical Society (AMS), Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and Society of Industrial Applied Mathematics (SIAM) was held at New Orleans, LA in January 6-9, 2011. This was the largest annual mathematics conference in the world attended by about 6000 people. Author was fortunate to attend the Gibbs Lecture on “Mathematical Problems in Systemic Risk” presented by Professor George Papanicolaou of Stanford University using differential equations, random matrices etc. To commemorate the name of Professor Gibbs, AMS established an honorary lectureship in 1923 to be known as the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship. The lectures are given by invitation and they are usually devoted to mathematics or its applications. It is hoped that these lectures will enable the public and the academic community to become aware of the contribution that mathematics is making to present-day thinking and to modern civilization.

Mathematical economics refers to the application of mathematical methods to represent economic theories and analyze problems posed in economics. It allows formulation and derivation of key relationships in a theory with clarity, generality, rigor, and simplicity. Mathematics allows economists to form meaningful, testable propositions about many wide-ranging and complex subjects which could not be adequately expressed informally. Much of economic theory is currently presented in terms of mathematical economic models, a set of mathematical relationships that clarify assumptions and implications. Mathematical economics conventionally



makes use of calculus, matrix algebra and differential equations in economic analysis in order to make powerful claims that would be more difficult without such mathematical tools. The interactions of mathematics and economics reflect changes in both the mathematics and economics communities over time, so that changes in mathematical knowledge and changing ideas about the nature of mathematical knowledge have effected changes in the methods and concerns of economists.

An actuary is a risk management professional. Actuaries may help design insurance plans, including recommending premium rates and making sure companies are designating enough funds to pay out on claims. They do this by creating tables or other models that assess how likely a given action or behavior is to result in a claim. Actuaries may also manage credit and help create new investment tools for financial institutions. Actuaries in many fields may help set company policy to minimize risk for both the employer and employees. Insurance industry is a big business throughout the world. Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in the insurance and finance industries. Calculus is the basic mathematical tool for studying rates of change and is a crucial tool for actuaries. Actuarial science takes mathematics and statistics and applies them to finance and insurance. In traditional life insurance, actuarial science focuses on the analysis of mortality, the production of life tables, and the application of compound interest to produce life insurance, annuities and endowment policies. In health insurance, including insurance provided directly by employers, and

social insurance, actuarial science focuses on the analyses of rates of disability, morbidity, mortality, fertility and other contingencies. In the pension industry, actuarial methods are used to measure the costs of alternative strategies with regard to the design, maintenance or redesign of pension plans.

Computer Science and Information

Technology: Mathematicians, with their training in logical and precise thinking, are highly prized in this field. Computer science is considered to have a much closer relationship with mathematics than many scientific disciplines, with some observers saying that computing is a mathematical science. Early computer science was strongly influenced by the work of mathematicians such as Alan Turing, and there continues to be a useful interchange of ideas between the two fields. Computer science or computing science is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe, and transform information. Computer science spans a range of topics from theoretical studies of algorithms and the limits of computation to the practical issues of implementing computing systems in hardware and software. The Computer Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB), which is made up of representatives of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE), and the Association for Information Systems (AIS), identifies four areas that it considers crucial to the discipline of computer science: theory of computation, algorithms and data structures, programming methodology and languages, and computer elements and architecture. In addition to these



four areas, CSAB also identifies fields such as software engineering, artificial intelligence, computer networking and communication, database systems, parallel computation, distributed computation, computer-human interaction, computer graphics, operating systems, and numerical and symbolic computation as being important areas of computer science. Computational science or scientific computing is the field of study concerned with constructing mathematical models and quantitative analysis techniques and using computers to analyze and solve scientific problems. In practical use, it is typically the application of computer simulation and other forms of computation to problems in various scientific disciplines. Software engineering is the branch of computer science that deals with the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of a system.

Information technology refers to the use of computers and software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and retrieve information. Computational theory, algorithm analysis, formal methods and data representation are just some computing techniques that require the use of mathematics. Computational theory and algorithm analysis deals with whether and how efficiently a computer is able to solve problems. Formal methods are mathematically based techniques for the specification, development and verification of software and hardware systems. Data representation refers to how computers exchange and process information using the ones and zeros of binary, rather than the more inconvenient ten-digit decimal system. Binary basically means composed of two parts. The binary number system was started by Gottfried

Leibniz back in 1666. It makes information processing simpler. For a processing system to work there must be at least two symbols therefore binary is the smallest numeral system that is usable. A CPU can only recognize two states, on or off, but from this on-off state, everything works.

Cryptography: Cryptography is one of the oldest areas of mathematics. Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. Cryptography is considered to be a branch of both mathematics and computer science. Not just for spies anymore, cryptography applications include the security of ATM cards and computer passwords. For as long as people have communicated, there are messages that we would like some people to have and not others. Even outside of wartime, there are numerous areas where being able to transmit information and have it remain secure is vital. For example, for any sort of large scale commerce, the ability to transfer and protect an increasingly digital set of assets is vital - and would you ever be willing to pay for something online with a credit card if your card number wasn't being encrypted before being sent? Historically, this is the art of secret writing. Cryptography is a branch of mathematics concerned with the study of hiding and revealing information and also of proving authorship of messages. A typical application of cryptography is one person wanting to send another person a private message, but they can only send messages over public channels. The original message is called the plain-text. An encryption cipher is an algorithm that transforms the plain-text into illegible data called the cipher-text, possibly using another piece of information called the encryption key. The decryption cipher is another



algorithm which transforms the cipher-text back into plain-text, also possibly using another piece of information called the decryption key. Encryption and decryption ciphers always come in pairs, as a decryption cipher can only decrypt cipher-texts encrypted with a particular encryption cipher.

Engineering: Applied mathematics is the basis of all engineering sciences. Engineers (Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Electronics, Industrial, Material, and Mechanical) build products, structures, systems like automobiles, buildings, computers, machines, and planes, to name just a few. They frequently use calculus, differential equations in their modeling. Ordinary and partial differential equations are heavily used to solve various problems. These initial/boundary value problems are solved constructed analytically or numerically, or using asymptotic approximation, Fourier or Laplace transforms. Fractals: As a student of mathematics, one learns early on the difference between one, two, and three dimensional objects. A one dimensional object lives in a line, two dimensional objects live in a plane, and a three dimensional object lives in space. However, the abstractness of mathematics became clear as soon as the various physical dimensions described above began to represent numerical quantities such as color, temperature, market price, etc. Further abstraction becomes apparent when four or more dimensions are added. One may ask, "Why limit the dimensions of a mathematical construct to integers?" That question leads to the development of fractals, which are objects with fractional dimensions. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity. The term fractal was coined

by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin word fractus. Because they appear similar at all levels of magnification, fractals are often considered to be infinitely complex. Natural objects that are approximated by fractals to a degree include clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, and snow flakes, various vegetables (cauliflower and broccoli). Some examples are the Cantor sets, Sierpinski triangle and carpet, Menger sponge, dragon curve, and Koch curve. A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole. Many natural objects have been found to be fractal and fractal mathematics has been used to generate many beautiful “nature” scenes. Fractal mathematics is used in image compression and for movies and is now becoming an engineering tool as well. Koch Curve: Consider a straight line. Divide it into three equal segments and replace the middle segment by the two sides of an equilateral triangle of the same length as the segment being removed. Now repeat, taking each of the four resulting segments, dividing them into three equal parts and replacing each of the middle segments by two sides of an equilateral triangle. Continue this construction. The Koch curve is the limiting curve obtained by applying this construction an infinite number of times. Sierpinski triangle/gasket: A simple way to generate the Sierpinski Triangle is to begin with a triangle. Connect the midpoints of each side to form four separate triangles, and cut out the triangle in the center. For each of the three remaining triangles, perform the same and iterate infinitely to obtain Sierpinski triangle.



Menger sponge: The sponge is the 3 dimensional form of the 2D carpet. It is created by sectioning the unit cube by slits of width one-third. The central piece and each cube located at the center of the faces are removed. This process is repeated forever with the resulting cubes. Games: All most all the games are based on some kind of mathematical logic. Some are more complex than others. Grand Master Vishanathan (Vishy) Anand recently won the world chess championship in Sofia, Bulgaria defeating his opponent Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in April-May, 2010. They played 12 matches and the last match made Anand winner of this championship. All these matches were available live at a website to watch online. Questions about Chess have motivated explorations of a branch of mathematics known as game theory. What makes chess so attractive is that there are a finite number of game states and they are easily described by words or characters. Because Chess is a finite game with complete information, it is possible for either white or black to force a win or for both sides to be able to force a draw. Which one of these three actually holds for chess is not known; though it is all but impossible that black is able to force a win. Chess has been a very fruitful domain for artificial intelligence researchers, trying to program computers to play chess. Chess is perceived by humans to be a difficult game. Chess artificial intelligence has more or less achieved its goal of besting human masters. However, the programs themselves that consistently beat the best humans do not seem to be particularly intelligent. They mostly achieve their stunning victories by considering millions or billions of possible move combinations rather than understanding

themes or recognizing patterns. There is ongoing research on how to design artificial intelligence to think about chess in a way like human masters do.

Health/Medicine Science and

Biotechnology: Mathematical biology or biomathematics is an interdisciplinary field of study. It models natural and biological processes using mathematical techniques and tools. Results have been applied to areas such as cellular neurobiology, epidemic modelling, and population genetics. Both doctors and nurses use math every day while providing health care for people around the world. Medical professionals use math when drawing up statistical graphs of epidemics or success rates of treatments. Math applies to X-rays and CAT scans. Recently there has been a greater integration of mathematics, biology and engineering, especially with applications to problems in medicine. Many medical issues from brain tumors to heart attacks can be understood better when mathematicians model their behavior by studying the blood flow, blood pressure and structure of the artery, then modeling it on a computer. Researchers have produced a mathematical model that may lead to the development of an optimally-timed vaccine for chronic leukemia. The model takes into account the natural anti-leukemia response in patients that are treated with the drug. This approach provides insights on how to improve the treatment of leukemia patients. One of the more advanced ways that medical professionals use mathematics is in the use of CAT scans. A CAT scan is a special type of x-ray called a Computerized Axial Tomography Scan. A regular x-ray can only provide a two-dimensional view of a particular part of the body.



Biologic phenomena can be modeled using Mathematics. Usually compartmental models are used to describe an epidemic. These consist of separating a population into disjoint classes, which are represented by compartments. SIR is a very common compartmental model. It consists of three classes: S for Susceptible, I for Infectious, and R for Recovered. A susceptible person is someone who is not infected, an infectious person is someone who is infected and is able to infect other people, and a recovered person is no longer infectious. Mathematical models are developed to study blood flow, blood pressure, arterial pressure, increased heart rate, cardiac contractility, and increase in nervous activity. Mathematical equations are used to describe cardiac mechanics (blood, muscle, valve mechanics) Simulation/ Computer animation. Realistic treatment uses demands the use of methods that account for anisotropy, inhomogeneity and complex geometry. The immersed boundary method (IBM) is a modeling and computational approach to analyze macroscopic systems involving elastic flexible structures which interact with a fluid. Thermal fluctuation can be incorporated in IBM through a forcing term in the fluid equations. This type of model also can be applied to microscopic dynamics of polymers, polymer knots, membrane sheets, vesicles, mechanics of cellular structures.

Medical imaging has been an interdisplinary research field attracting people expertise from applied mathematics, chemistry, computer sciences, biology, engineering, physics and medicine. Computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Doppler ultrasound and various

imaging techniques based on nuclear emission called PET (positron emission tomography), SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) are reliable tools to detect and diagnosis of disease. Fourier transform (Discrete FT, Fast FT) are used to analyze the images. Author worked for a medical imaging company in Montreal, Canada during 1995-96 on fan beam reconstruction of image.

Hydrodynamics: The flow of fluids is simultaneously among the most important and most complicated areas of engineering and mathematical physics. The construction of airplanes obviously requires the understanding of air flowing across the wings; it doesn't take much stretch of the imagination to realize that the construction of high speed automobiles and trains requires careful study of aerodynamics not just to reach those high speeds but to prevent the vehicles from being torn to pieces. That buildings and bridges needed to be carefully constructed with air flow in mind came as a shock to many. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge experienced a phenomenon called resonance. The general equation which governs fluid flow is called the Navier-Stokes equation. This equation is a non-linear partial differential equation. As a result, it exhibits chaotic behavior called turbulence. This means that even though two points are relatively close to one another in position, the forces at each of those two points could be vastly different. For example, in the eye of a hurricane, there is almost no wind at all, and yet just outside this small region, the winds are strong enough to tear the roof off a house. When a plane takes off, the airflow immediately below the plane is powerful enough to throw a car, and yet the wheels of the plane are not



destroyed. Chaos is a property which results from non-linearity: solutions to non-linear equations are extremely sensitive on initial conditions. This is one reason why the weather is so hard to predict. Clay Institute has announced one million dollar prize on the existence/solution of the Navier-Stokes equation. Author has been working on various research problems involving hydrodynamics.

Image Processing: A picture is worth a thousand words. Doctors in hospitals use X-ray pictures to check for broken bones. Meteorologists employ images from satellites to help forecast the weather. Law enforcement officers study aerial photographs to find out where drug crops are being grown. We have been amazed by the images of the planet Mars from the Pathfinder mission and by other astronomical images from the Hubble telescope. Images are often displayed on a computer screen as a grid of picture elements called pixels, with each pixel having assigned to it a particular color or shade of grey. Face recognition program is used to identify the people that appear in a surveillance video. A technique called eigenfaces is used to do this with the help of Principal Component Analysis. A known database of face images is used to detect the new face.

Mathematical Modelling:

Mathematical models are important tools in physics, engineering, biology, economics, seismology, sociology, and many other disciplines. The goal of a model is to use math to explain the behavior of an observed phenomenon such that the model behavior coincides with the observed behavior. We can also use these models in a predictive fashion and form hypotheses about future

behavior of the phenomenon. The better our model is, the more accurate our hypotheses will be. You may already be familiar with quite a few mathematical models. For instance, the equations one derives in mechanics are models for Newton’s laws of motion. Graphs of supply and demand curves in economics are models of the economy. These models rely mostly on calculus, specially, on differential equations. There are, however, many other models out there that use very different kinds of math. Other areas of modeling include using group theory and algebraic geometry.

Music: Many composers have applied the Fibonacci numbers or the golden ratio in the music they compose, the most famous one being Mozart and the most recent one being Bela Bartok, a Hungarian composer and pianist. It is said that Mozart wrote down mathematical equations beside his music scores. Mozart also divided most of his piano sonatas into two distinct sections whose lengths reflect the golden ratio, though there is much debate about whether it is done on purpose. Some musical instruments display the use of Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio, for example the violin and the piano. It is widely believed that students who do well in music also excel in math. Some research shows that starting music lessons at a young age enhances math ability. One theory is that music strengthens the neural chords that transmit information between the two hemispheres of the brains. Author had the privilege to attend a presentation on use of trigonometric functions to generate music by a mathematics professor at the joint meeting of American Mathematical Society (AMS), Mathematical Association of America



(MAA) and Society of Industrial Mathematics (SIAM) in San Diego, California in 2008.

Nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the science and technology of structuring and controlling matter at the nanoscale.

One nanometer is 910− meters. Scientist Richard P. Feynman discussed the possibility of creating machines at a molecularly accurate level in nineteen fifties. Mathematical computation is the basis for nanotechnology and nanoengineering. What happens when things gets really small? Mathematical modelling and computer simulation help answering these fundamental nanotechnology question. Using computer simulation, materials can be studied right down at the nanoscale. Nanofluidic device is a tiny pipe used for applications such as rapid DNA sequencing. As the pipes are made smaller, the pressure needed to push fluids through them increases dramatically. These are exciting and rapidly developing problems for mathematical modellers which needs solid background in applied mathematics. Growth in the field of nanotechnology is creating a demand for highly-skilled individuals from broad range of fields including applied mathematics, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, material science, physics, and software engineering.

Oil and Gas Industry/Petroleum

Engineering: The emergence of complex enhanced recovery procedures in the field of hydrocarbon extraction techniques has emphasized the need for sophisticated mathematical tools, capable of modeling intricate chemical and physical phenomena and sharply changing fluid interfaces. Author worked as a mathematician with the

geophysics division of KDMIPE, Oil and Natural Gas Commission in Dehradun during 1985-1991.

Operational Research and

Optimization: Operational research is an interdisciplinary branch of mathematics which uses mathematical methods to arrive at optimal decisions to problems in maximizing or minimizing things like costs or profits. The eventual intention behind using Operations Research is to elicit a best possible solution to a problem mathematically, which improves or optimizes the performance of the system. Revenue Management System (RMS) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) are two areas that profoundly use applied mathematics, specially, developing software to process huge amount of reservation/supply data using optimization techniques. Author had the opportunity to develop RMS software for a revenue management company in Atlanta, USA during 1998-2002. Our main client was Delta Airlines.

Signal Processing: Radars work by emitting and receiving electromagnetic radiation. Typically they use the long-wavelength radio and microwaves. Air traffic control radars rotate on a tower emitting signals in every direction at the speed of light. When these signals come into contact with objects they are reflected back at the same speed. Measuring the time that it takes for the signal to return lets us calculate the distance to the object. Also, it is known at what angle this signal was emitted, so we know the approximate location of the object. Say you are an astronaut wanting to transmit a signal from your space station back to mission control on Earth. You'll be broadcasting from hundreds of miles above Earth, through solar



radiation and electromagnetic disturbances, through atmospheric effects, cloud cover, and amidst the millions of other signals that are being sent all across Earth. How can you make sure that all (or even a large part) of your message makes it to mission control? Let's assume that you've already translated your message into binary from the start, as it's easier for machines to send and receive. We're going to want to somehow augment or change our message in such a way that we can send it, possibly lose or damage a part of it, then on receiving this new damaged message, either detect the error, or even better, correct the errors and losses back to our original message.

Tsunami and Earthquakes: Tsunami waves (long waves) can be efficiently simulated by numerical models solving the Shallow Water equations. Simulation of tsunamis in large ocean presents a huge computational and software challenge, which the traditional parallel software alone can not meet. To effectively use the computational resource, one should use different mathematical models, different numerical methods, and different mesh types in different areas of the vast ocean. This ensures that complex mathematical models and high mesh resolution are only used where necessary. Such a parallel hybrid tsunami simulator calls for a very flexible software approach that can mix different models, methods and meshes. This can be achieved by combining overlapping domain decomposition, parallel and object-oriented programming.

Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions and large meteorite impacts all have the potential to generate a tsunami. A new mathematical formula that could

be used to give advance warning of where a tsunami is likely to hit and how destructive it will be has been worked out by scientists. The research, led by Newcastle University's Professor Robin Johnson, was prompted by the 2004 tsunami disaster which devastated coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Professor Johnson and his colleague Professor Adrian Constantin, based at the University of Vienna, Austria, felt that if we could understand more about how these long water waves behave we could predict where they might hit and how devastating they might be. Author has an opportunity to attend ten invited talks on nonlinear water waves delivered by Professor Constantin and one invited talk delivered by Professor Robin Johnson at the University of Texas-Pan American during May, 2010.

About the Author: Dr. Dambaru Bhatta is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA), Edinburg, Texas, USA. The oldest known Mathematics texts is existence are the Sulba-sutras of Budhayana, Apastambha, and Kartyayana. The Sulba-sutras has been estimated to have been composed around 800 BC. The Yuktibhasa, written by Jyesthadeva of the Kerala School of astronomy and mathematics in circa 1530, is widely considered to be the first textbook on calculus. “Neither Newton nor Leibniz - The Pre-History of Calculus and Celestial Mechanics in Medieval Kerala". MAT 314. Canisius College. Retrieved 2006-07-09.



International Year of Chemistry, 2011

How Should We Celebrate? Saitanya K Bharadwaj Technische Universität München, Germany Email: [email protected]

Chemistry- the branch of science that deals with the composition and properties of substances and various elementary forms of matter – the meaning states by Oxford dictionary; it also means the feeling of human mind or personality. The Sanskrit word “Rashayana” means extraction the “Rasha”- “the juice or type of entertainment” of science.

Chemistry is regarded as a central science, all other branches of science directly or indirectly related to the chemistry. Esteemed scientists considered that current global problems can be solved by means of practicing Chemistry; Hence need for appreciation and deep understanding of Chemistry. With the target to create appreciation among general people and attract young generations towards chemistry the United Nations and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) have declared the year 2011 as “International year of Chemistry-IYC”.

After successful celebration of year in various subjects like Peace (1986), literacy (1994), Physics (2005) and Potato (2008); the year 2011 is proposed to celebrate as “International Year of Chemistry, IYC” with the slogan “Chemistry-our life, our future”. This has not come in one day, the general assembly of IUPAC held in Turin, Italy in 2007 approved first to dedicate the year 2011 towards Chemistry. In fact,

the Executive committee of IUPAC discussed about this matter in 2006, April. Later, in December 2008 the Executive Board of UNESCO recommended for the same. Thereafter in 2009 and 2010, proposition and planning of activities, logo design, website development etc and finally publicity have been successfully implemented.

Now Questions arise why they dedicate to chemistry, what are the activities, what is our duty being lived in the year 2011. The proposed activities are a) Increase the public appreciation of

chemistry in meeting world needs: Molecular transformations for production of foodstuffs, medicine, fuel metal etc. are the art and science of Chemistry. Celebration of the year 2011 to Chemistry might help to make it understandable to the general people. Also the global warming, decreasing the source of petroleum products are some of the burning problems in the present situation. IUPAC hopes that creating public appreciation towards Chemistry will help to overcome such problems.

b) Increase interest of young people

in chemistry: The young students with first-rate mind are the future of our society; therefore the UN and IUPAC targeted those to attract them towards chemistry. National and international activities like workshop, lectures will be carried out in this year to educate and make

IYC-Special



awareness among the students towards sustainability the nature.

c) Generate enthusiasm for the

creative future of chemistry: Opportunities for creative discovery of new principles and applications for overcoming the challenges facing today’s world will be given to chemists by the UN and IUPAC. It is thought that this will reinforce in the development of molecular medicine, creating new materials and sustainable source of food and energy.

d) Celebrate the 100th

anniversary of

Madame Marie Curie Nobel Prize

and founding of the International

Association of Chemical Societies: Marie Sklodowska Curie was awarded with Nobel Prize for 2nd time in 1911 in Chemistry. Apart from her significant discovery, it is really admirable because she has contributed to science in the male-dominated era. Hence celebration of this year in the honor of her will definitely encourage the female towards science. In addition, the year 2011 also marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of International Association of Chemical Society in Paris, which later renamed as IUPAC (1919).

A chemist’s duty: A master or doctoral student or researcher or teacher, everyone has something to do in this year; which will make easier to achieve the goal of IYC in every corner of World. Master and Doctoral student can explain to the juniors how they are getting interested towards chemistry and how it will be helpful to their (world) future. As well as teachers and also scientists can make a project to show the prospect of chemistry, current trend with global situations etc. It will also be

appreciated if somebody can show the colorful chemistry to the general people. A Group’s Duty: It is preferable always have a group to perform activities; dividend of work makes easier for all and ended with successfully. A Non-Government Organization (NGO) as well as Government Institution can also write a proposal to the regional/national/international chemical foundation to provide funding for the activities. For which we have to have right plan with estimated value of expenditure and others. What IUPAC and UN doing: For IYC, IUPAC and UN have created website IYC2011.org. Interested person go through the website, read the activities to be performed, aim/goal of 2011 etc. There is a menu “Network” where you can enter your name and address to connect the people over the world. You can submit your idea which will be considered by the committee and might approve for funding. Some people have found that there are people from Northeast India in the network. What people are doing: If you visit the website you will find many people over the world shared their idea to encouraged general crowd to understand science/chemistry. If a school teacher from Janmu and Kashmir can write a proposal for a laptop and projector to make awareness among students, if a Professor from Maharastra can arrange a lecture series to attract people, why not we? Hence being a group with large number of chemist member, I hope this group will definitely can participate in IYC celebration!!!



A greener nanoscale and the challenges

before the nano gypsies! Rocktotpal Konwarh, and Niranjan Karak Advanced Polymer and Nanomaterial Laboratory, Department of Chemical Sciences, Tezpur University, Napaam-784028, Assam Email: [email protected], Abstract:

In recent time nanotechnology has carved a unique niche of its own. A number of avant-garde nanoscale products have already reached the market. Nevertheless, the reported growing number, nature and applications of these nanomaterials have generated a colossal hue and cry about the possible and unexplored risks on the environment and human health. The realization to switch over to greener approaches in nanotechnology is being reported of late. In the first place, it aims to make emerging nanotechnologies clean from the start. Secondly, a complementary role of nanotechnology to boost up the green technologies that benefit the environment can be envisioned. At the same time, the business world is gradually witnessing entrepreuners tuning into ecopreneurs. Bringing the nanotechnology under the green umbrella would also imply greater acceptance of the products by the customers. However, adopting and popularising such strategies globally faces few challenges that need to be addressed from the very grass-root level. This write-up mirrors few of the above mentioned issues. Keywords: Green nanotechnology; Life-cycle assessment; Risk analysis

The entire world is confronted by

the debacles of global warming,

pollution of all forms, energy and water crisis and bio-resource depletion. Global conferences1 are being organised to address the issues of climate change and to devise biodiversity conservation strategies. The catastrophes have left no alternative but to return to the roots i.e. switching to the nature’s way of shaping up the materials and processes. Notably, use of benign materials for manufacture, recycling of wastes, smart controls with feedback loops, and efficient use of energy- these are adroitly maintained by the quintessential nano-factories i.e. the cells to achieve perfection in architecture and performance.

In this context, ‘going green’ is the voluntary pursuit of any endeavor that embraces concern for environmental management, energy efficiency, water management, waste management and recycling. Green practices ultimately lead to sustainable development and equitable growth. And in the business scenario, the good news is that many young entrepreneurs are turning into ‘ecopreneurs‘.The goal of a green business is to keep its environmental footprint small, reducing waste and reusing materials as much as possible.

Media reports of success of green business have shown that it is economically feasible. It has also encouraged the growth of initiatives which are designed to benefit the environment, from carbon trading to tax breaks say for the people who make

Nano Prospect



energy-efficient modifications to their homes that may be envisioned with advanced materials like polymeric nanocomposites. A green business can sell all sorts of things. Many car manufacturers, for example, have green model factories and offices to convince their target consumers that they are concerned about the environment. Ferrari has unveiled a solar panel system in Maranello, Italy that would cut annual power usage by 210,000 kilowatt hour.2 The internet also reports about ‘green washing’ – a trend exhibited by companies which want to capitalize on the ‘green’ revolution in business without actually doing the deed.

However, what’s more profound in the research niche these days is the buzz-phrase of ‘going nano’, leaving not a single domain of the scientific panoroma untouched by its avant-garde impact. The ever-increasing number of scientific research journals dedicated to various aspects of nanotechnology and websites reporting the latest research outputs stand in support of the above statement. A large number of nanotechnological outputs are knocking the door of commercialization with many being presently nurtured inside the laboratories and factories. Lux Research3 estimates that by 2014, nanotechnology would be interlaced into manufactured goods worth $ 2.6 trillion, generating employement for 10 million. Even the sports world has felt its impact. Wilson Nano Carbon HOPE tennis racquet has an extra-light weight and features a 4.25 inch cushion air-grip and high modulus graphite fibers.4

The reported growing number, nature and applications of these nanomaterials have generated a colossal hue and cry about the possible and unexplored risks on the environment

and human health. This has dictated scientists and engineers to comply by the principles of green-chemistry and green-engineering to achieve an ideal ‘benign by design’ strategy of constructing novel nanomaterials from the start, promoting complete utilization of raw materials and no waste-generation with an objective to obtain maximal energy efficiency and performance. A concerted utility of anti-cancerous properties of phytochemicals in tea and simultaneous generation of biocompatible gold nanoparticles is a recently reported stimulating breakthrough of practising green nanotechnology.5 Research is gradually turning towards the use of bioresources for production of various industrial products. A number of vegetable oil based flame retardant6; catalytic7 and cytocompatible8 advanced polymeric nanocomposites have been developed recently. Furthermore, scientists are exploring phytoextracts and the microbial world for in-vivo synthesis of silver nanoparticles.9

Green nanotechnology enacted on the principles of green chemistry and green engineering darts out to hit the bull’s-eye of doing nanotechnology safely and responsibly. In the first place, it shall make emerging nanotechnologies clean from the start. Secondly, a complementary role of nanotechnology to boost up the green technologies that benefit the environment can be envisioned. The report10 by Karen F. Schmidt, entitled ‘Green Nanotechnology: It’s easier than you think’ enlists some advanced research in the domain of green nanotechnology. Tailoring of nanomaterials and products with reduced toxicity, energy efficiency and durability complemented by design strategy with bottom-up



approach would ensure maximal raw material utility, as operative in the cellular niche, to generate the final product rather than generation of bulk volumes of wastes. This molecular mimicking of controlling nano-scale pattern, however, suffers from slow production rates and as such new approaches for better reallocation of raw materials and resources need to be probed into. It is also important to note that nano-portion may just be a small part of the final product. Strict material purity requisites, less tolerance for defects, low process yields and material utilization efficacies, high energy to water consumption, repetitive processing steps make sustainability of nano-products questionable. Nevertheless, green-nanotechnology can pave the way for industrial ecology, built on ‘clean-up and green-up of industrial products and processes’ approach. In this context, a special mention must be made of the diatoms- signature organisms of nature’s nanotechnological maneouvers. A group of researchers has recently proposed ways of ‘milking’ oil from diatoms using biochemical engineering and a solar panel approach that utilizes genomically modifiable aspects of diatom biology.11

As a multidisciplinary domain, nanotechnology affords a focal point for scientific consilience and as such information sharing amongst physicists, material scientists, toxicologists, industrial ecologists, chemists and the biologists is a pre-requisite. Furthermore, accountability of the footprint of the total system i.e. to ensure that all stages of the life cycle are green is a must. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifies ecological impact at different product life cycle stages and avoids shifting potential environmental confrontations from one stage to

another (ISO 14040:2006).12 International calls for unison of life cycle assessment and risk analysis for substances have emphasized on the indispensability to deal with the spectrum of potential concerns about nanoscale materials. These approaches are conceptual frameworks often translated into quantitative assessments, conducted by application of present knowledge and extrapolation to models. However, a major challenge in implementing LCA models for nanomaterial analysis is the limited information available. The very first obstacle is the material variability and associated limitation of characterization tools for nanomaterials. Comprehending the purity and uniformity as well as the relationship between these characteristics and their functionality in the end-use application is a pre-requisite. To represent dose in terms of mass terms is elusive for toxicity and risk assessment for nanomaterials. Interaction with the environmental media, surface traits, functionalization and microbial activation may be envisaged as major players of toxicity of nanomaterials. And as such, there’s no single index to measure their toxicity. The nomenclature of nanomaterials in its nascent stage, with no shared understanding complements the unexplored system-level human health and environmental risks,13 where attention to one set or system overlooks the larger impacts. The ease with which these materials are transported makes the biotic component of the ecosystem more vulnerable. This risk is further aggravated due to lack of real-time monitoring systems, transparency, large incongruities in data collection, and differences in methodology or presentation. For a



strong industry-academia interface, a database on current research in green nano is required. The research in this scientific domain and the policies for commericialization demand an international collaboration with rational governance structure, highlighting the thrust areas and their possible utility. This is indispensable in terms of naming the plethora of new nanomaterials and accessing of information regarding their properties, applications and risks amidst the scientific community. Schmidt’s report pointed to the fact that we should be spending at least as much on avoiding risks as we do on studying them. Proper identification of useful surrogates and benchmarks is indispensable for evaluating whether and to what extent nanoproducts are green.10

We believe that the ‘green-nano wave’ will surely result in capital willingness of the industrialists (investors) to opt for it. Bringing the whole scenario of ‘nano-business’ world under a ‘green umbrella’ would make the products more acceptable to the consumers as well as in the ecosystem. A green approach towards nanotechnological advancements guarantees to shift the society into a new paradigm that is more proactive rather than imprudent when it comes to ecological and health implications. Atleast the green initiative ushers in some hope for the nanogypsies to spread the optimistic viewpoint about the ‘nano’ word. Reference 1. Ronal Gainza-Carmenates, J. Carlos

Altamirano-Cabrera, Philippe Thalmann, Laurent Drouet Trade-offs and performances of a range of alternative global climate architectures for post-2012 Environmental science & policy 13 (2010) 63–71

2. http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/01/22/ferrari-factory-goes-solar.

3. Lux Research. The Nanotech ReportTM: Investment Overview and Market Research for Nanotechnology. Volume 1. New York: Lux Research Inc. 2006.

4. http://www.product-reviews.net/review/20090417/wilson-nano-carbon-hope-tennis-racquet.

5. S.K. Nune, N. Chanda, R. Shukla, K. Katti, R.R. Kulkarni, S.Thilakavathy, S. Mekapothula, R. Kannan, K.V. Katti, J. Mater. Chem., 2009, 19, 2912-2920.

6. G. Das and N. Karak, Polym. Degrad. Stabil., 2009, 94 (11),1948-1954.

7. N. Karak, R. Konwarh and B. Voit, Macromol. Mater. Eng., 2009, 295 (2), 159–169.

8. S. Dutta, N. Karak, J.P. Saikia and B.K. Konwar, Bioresource Technol., 2009, 100 (24), 6391-6397.

9. V.K.Sharma, R.A. Yngard and Y. Lin, Adv. Colloid Interface. Sci. 2009, 145, 83–96.

10. K. F. Schmidt, “Green Nanotechnology: It’s easier than you think” Presentation given at Green Nanotechnology Event hosted by the Projects on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholar, April 2007.

11. T. V. Ramachandra, D.M.Mahapatra, Karthick B and R. Gordon, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2009, 48, 8769–8788

12. ISO 14040:2006: Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework. International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

13. A. Wardak, M.E. Gorman, N. Swami and S. Deshpande, J. Ind. Ecol., 2008, 12(3), 435-448.

About the Author: Prof. Niranjan Karak is working as Professor in the Department of Chemical Science, Tezpur University. Mr. Roctotpal Konwarh is working under Prof Karak as JRF.



Adopting Green Chemistry Protocols Suvangshu Dutta

Dept. of Chemistry, D.R. College, Golaghat-785621, Assam


Abstract

Green chemistry is the way by

which chemists loom chemical reactions

in a newer manner that concerns with the

health and the environment. Designing

chemistry adopting the twelve principles

of green chemistry is now gradually

welcomed and adopted by the chemical

industries, laboratories and academia.

Ample of new approaches have been

developed and at the same time numerous

techniques have been fine tuned by green

chemistry concept. Some aspects of green

chemistry and recent research

contributions in the field by the

researchers of the north eastern India

have been highlighted.

Keyword: Green Chemistry, environment

Introduction

The emergence of science and

technology to meet the need of the

civilisation is ever welcome. Chemistry

plays a key role in this regard in almost

every aspect of modern life. In the

process, however, chemistry in general

and chemical industries as well as

laboratories in particular is releasing

billion pounds of toxic chemicals to the

earth’s atmosphere causing threat to the

humanity. It was this realisation that

brought together the heads of 150 nations

for a historic earth summit (UNICED,

United Nation Conference on

Environment and Development) at Rio-de

Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, in 1992.

This summit has generated a new global

awareness and debate on issues relating to

man and the environment relationship.

“Awareness is utmost necessary at this

moment for all of us to save the

environment for the future in all possible

ways” as was rightly mentioned by the

editor (Babita Baruwati) of the July, 2010

issue of NE Quest.

The historical earth summit

resulted in the concept of “green” or

sustainable” that does no harm either to

human or the environment. The term

“Green Chemistry” was coined by Prof.

Paul Anastas of the US Environmental

Protection Agency in 1993. Green

chemistry or sustainable chemistry is the

way by which chemists loom chemical

reactions in a newer manner that concerns

with the health and the environment

necessitating a paradigm shift from

traditional concept of process efficiency

to one that assigns economic value to

eliminate waste at source and avoid the

use of toxic/ hazardous substances.

Significant progress in green chemistry is

being continued in several key research

areas of chemistry utilising the twelve

principles of Green Chemistry (Scheme

1) formulated by Prof. Paul Anastas and

Greener Prospect



Strengthenin

g analytical

Renewable

Starting

Non toxic

products

Functional

efficiency

Biodegradabl

e products No

derivatisation

Avoid

separation

Min. energy

requirement

Use catalyst

Avoid chemical

accidents

Prevention of

waste

Atom economy

Green

Chemistry

Prof. John Warner. Industries,

Laboratories, academic and R&D

organizations have now fitted out to adopt

the Green Chemistry principles.

The Protocol

Most of the conventional chemical

reactions are carried out neglecting the

environmental aspects of waste and toxic

by-products formed during the process.

The waste not only causes pollution but

also requires expenditure for clean up.

Two useful measures that can limit such

non-green practice are Atom Economy

and the E factor. Green Chemistry

demands atom economy closer to 100%

in order to maximise the utility of starting

materials leaving no undesired product

behind as shown in Scheme 2 (where, S is

the undesired by-product). Reaction (b) is

an 100% atom economical reaction as the

substrates P and Q are fully converted

into the product, R. This concept of atom

economy, developed by Berry Trost of

Stanford University, equipped with the

concept of yield and selectivity have lead

to many efficient greener synthesis. The

thermal Claisen reaction is an well-known

organic reaction with 100% atom

economy (Scheme 3). The sheer extent of

the waste problem in chemical industry

can be observed in terms of a good

barometer known as Environmental factor

or simply E factor (Total waste in kg/

product in kg) which is different (Table 1)

depending on the type of the industry

producing chemicals. It is evident from

Table 1 that the oil companies produce

less waste than pharmaceutical industries.

This is due to the attention paid by the oil

companies in minimizing waste and in

finding uses for the waste products. On

Scheme 1: Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry



Scheme 3 : Thermal Claisen Reaction with 100% atom economy

the other hand, the pharmaceutical

industries are concentrated more on

molecule manufacture and quality which

involves a number of reaction steps

producing undesirable side products

(waste). However large pharmaceutical

and fine chemical industries are now

focusing on improvement of their E

factors by increasing the atom economy

of reactions and decreasing the number of

reaction steps.

O

200oC

O

OH

% Atom Economy =Molecular weight of the atoms utilised

Molecular weight of the starting materialX 100

= 1 X 100 = 100

Table 1: E Factor of some common chemical

industries

Industry Type E

Factor

Waste

Produced

(Tonnes)

Oil Refining Upto 0.1

105 - 107

Bulk Chemicals Upto 5 104 – 5 x 106

Fine Chemicals Upto 5 - 50

5 x (102 - 105)

Pharmaceuticals Upto 25 - 100

2.5 x (102 - 105)

The most important factor from

the environmental point of view is the

nature of the waste. For example, one

mole of NaCl is not equivalent to one

mole of Cr2(SO4)3 as the later is more

harmful to the environment. Thus,

Sheldon introduced a new term

“Environmental Quotient (EQ)” defined

as,

The magnitude of Q-value is debatable

and variable depending on the extent of

toxicity, ease of recyclability and many

other factors. For example, HBr could

possess a lower Q-value than HCl as

recycling via. oxidation to bromine is

much easier in the former case.

Scheme 2: (a) Conventional chemical reaction,

(b) Greener chemical reaction



Another important Green

Chemistry protocol is to have practicable

synthetic methodologies that are

anticipated to use and generate substances

that possess little or no toxicity to human

health and the environment. For example,

the classical Bayer Villiger reaction

utilises meta-chloroperbenzoic acid

(MCPBA), known to be highly explosive,

in caprolactam synthesis used for nylon

production. However, a modified version

known as enzymatic Bayer Villiger

reaction utilises Baker’s yeast which is

non-pathogenic and thus is safe leaving

no toxicity (Scheme 4).

O

O

O2, Baker's Yeast

mCPBA

Green Route

O

Classical Route

+ H2O

+ mCPBA

Scheme 4: Caprolactam production for nylon industry

The use of auxiliary substances

like solvents, separating agents

which may deteriorate human health

and the environment should be

minimized in the laboratories. This

problem of solvents has been

overcome by using some

environmentally benign solvents

like liquid carbon dioxide

(supercritical CO2), ionic liquid,

water etc. Even reactions without

solvent may be conducted in solid

state using microwave in a very

faster rate catalysed by the surfaces

of less expensive and recyclable

mineral supports like alumina,

silica, clay etc. For example, the

oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl

compounds is carried out using

harmful conventional CrO3, KMnO4

etc which can also be carried out

under solvent free conditions

assisted by microwave (MW) by

just mixing the substrates with clay

supported Fe(NO3)3 (known as

clayfen) as the oxidant (Scheme 5).

A group of scientists from North

East India headed by Ruli Borah,

Tezpur University, Assam have

shown that 2-Nitroalkanols can be

produced from nitro-aldol reaction

(Henry reaction) using imidazole as

a Lewis base catalyst. They carried

out the nitro-aldol reaction in water

as a solvent and also under

solventless conditions (Scheme 5).

Ionic liquids, being polar and ionic

in character, coupled to MW

radiation has been found to

drastically reduce the reaction time

from hours to minutes to yield 1,3-

dialkylimidazolium halides.



Scheme 5: MW assisted oxidation of a secondary alcohol to a ketone

Energy generation has a major

environmental effect. According to

green chemistry protocol, the energy

requirements should be identified for

environmental and economic impacts

and should be minimised. Catalysts can

play a remarkable role in this respect by

decreasing energy requirements,

increasing selectivity and permitting the

use of less hazardous reaction

conditions. Thus catalysis is often

termed as the foundation pillar of green

chemistry. SMS Pharmaceutical

Limited, Hyderabad has developed a

catalytic green method for the

conversion of foul smelling toxic gases

like methyl mercaptan generated in the

manufacture of rantidine base into

useful byproducts recyclable in the

same process. In a major achievement, a

group of scientists from North East

India headed by Prof. Mihir K.

Chaudhuri (Vice Chancellor of Tezpur

University) with the help of SMS

Pharmaceutical Limited developed an

improved process that makes the

manufacturing of rantidine HCl clean

and green. In the process, the methyl

mercaptan is first converted to dimethyl

sulphide and is then catalytically

converted into dimethyl sulphoxide

(DMSO) in a quantitative manner. The

catalysts are based on Ti, V, Al and a

solid acid. The DMSO produced by the

catalytic reaction is used in the process

itself thereby reducing the total cost of

production by nearly 40%. The group

also developed a greener method for

extraction of bromine from sea water

(Bittern) by biomimetic catalysis.

Use of renewable feedstock is

another green chemistry protocol which

is getting attention to considerable

extent in recent times. This is due to

their agricultural origin, easy

availability, less toxicity and

biodegradability. Another group of

scientists from North East India

headed by Niranjan Karak of Tezpur

Universty has successfully developed

the versatile polyurethane (a polymer



having a vast range of commercial

applications) using Mesua ferrea L.

Seed oil as the raw material.

Transesterification of Mesua ferrea L.

Seed oil is first done with methanol to

get the methyl ester which is then

amidolysed with diethanol amine. The

resulting amidolyzed polyol (fatty

amide diol) is then treated with Toluene

Diisocyanate at 45-50 oC to get the

versatile polyurethanes (Scheme 6). The

group is currently engaged in making

the process more greener by developing

water borne polymers by utilising

various techniques.

Scheme 6: Synthesis of Polyurethane from

renewable feedstock

Conclusion

Only a minuscule percentage of

the chemical stuff are made following

the principles of green chemistry which

is based on the ultimate premise that it

is better to prevent waste than to clean it

up after it is formed. There is no doubt

that the emerging area of green chemistry

has identified scientific principles,

approaches and methodologies that have

demonstrated the most positive aspects of

chemistry in industry while the success of

green chemistry seems quite large in

terms of quantitative benefit to human

health and the environment, they are

merely the tip of the iceberg when

compared to the potential. The only

thing is to bring more awareness for

adopting the green chemistry protocol

in industries and laboratories. The

principles of green chemistry today

need to become the core of

tommorrow’s chemistry, integrating

sustainability into science and its

innovations. The scientists and

researchers from India including our

North Eastern region have also come up

to cope with the situation. The

worldwide industries are now gradually

adopting green chemistry protocol as

they have realised that when their

professional chemists are

knowledgeable about environmental

pollution prevention concepts, they are

able to identify and implement effective

pollution prevention technologies.

References

[1] Anastas P. and Warner J.C., Green

Chemistry: Theory and Practice,

Oxford Publishers, New York, pp. 30,

1998.

[2] Anastas P., Kirchoff M.M. and

Williamson T.C., Applied Catalysis A:

General, 221, 3-13, 2001.

[3] Varma R.S., Pure and Applied

Chemistry, 73, 193-198, 2001.

[4] Manley J.B., Anastas P. and Berkeley

B.C., Journal of Cleaner Production,

16, 743-750, 2008.



[5] Horvath I.T., Green Chemistry, 10,

1024-1028, 2008.

[6] Kirchoff M. M., Resources,

Conservation and Recycling, 44, 237-

243, 2005.

[7] Everts S., New Scientist, 13, 34-38,

2010.

[8] Phukan M., Borah K.J. and Borah R.,

Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews,

2, 249-253, 2009.

[9] Dutta S. and Karak N., Progress in

Organic Coatings, 53, 147-152, 2005.

[10] Chaudhuri M.K., Tetrahedron Letters,

50, 3767-3771, 2009.

About the Author: Dr. Suvangshu Dutta

is presently working as an Assistant

Professor in D.R. College, Golaghat,

Assam. He was honored with Ph.D in

2010 from Tezpur University, before

which he completed B.Sc from

Dibrugarh University in 2000 and

M.Sc. from Gauhati University in 2002.

Philosopher’s stone

The Alchymist, In Search of the

Philosophers' Stone

The origins of the philosopher's stone

seem to be in ancient Hinduism. The

Yoga Vasistha, written between the 10th

and 14th century AD, contains a story

about the Philosopher's stone. A great

Hindu sage wrote about the spiritual

accomplishment of Gnosis using the

metaphor of the philosopher's stone.

Saint Jnaneshwar (1275-1296), wrote a

commentary with 17 references to the

philosopher's stone that explicitly

transmutes base metal into gold. The

seventh century Indian sage

Thirumoolar in his classic

Tirumandhiram explains man's path to

immortal divinity. In verse 2709 he

declares that the name of God, Shiva or

the god Shambala, is an alchemical

vehicle that turns the body into

immortal gold.

-------------

Short Biography of Dr. K. Öfele

Dr Karl Öfele was born in 1930 in Munich Germany.

He studied in the Technische Hochschule München,

now known as Technische Universität München. He

did his Ph. D under Prof. E. O Fischer (Fischer

carbene!) and received the same in 1959. Thereafter

he joined in the same university and continued his

own research carrier with Prof. Fischer. He spent

few months in the University North Carolina, USA as

visiting scientists. He has more than half century

publications in highly reputed journals. One of his

greatest finding is the isolation of first NHC-metal

complexes. His research interest includes sandwich

complex, heterocyclic and polycyclic transition metal

complex, metal carbonyls, N-heterocyclic carbene

and carbocyclic compounds. He retired in 1997;

however he still comes to department to share his

knowledge with the new research scholar, especially

taking the great responsibility to the auto-clave.



Impact of Theoretical Modelling in Studying

Nanometarials Bulumoni Kalita

Department of Chemical Science, Tezpur University, Assam-784028, India


Abstract

There is need to understand the

fundamental properties of nanomaterials

in view of the growing field of

nanotechnology. This article provides a

general overview of the importance and

current status of computational and

theoretical methods in studying

nanomaterials.

Keywords: Nanomaterial, QM method.

Over the past decade,

nanomaterials have become a subject of

enormous interest due to their potentials

for wide-ranging industrial, biomedical

and electronic applications. The

defining characteristic of nanomaterials

is their sizes in the range of 1-100 nm.

The origin of the term nano comes from

the Greek word meaning dwarf or

extremely small. Although the

worldwide interest in nanomaterials is

recent, the concept was raised over 41

years ago by Physicist Richard

Feynman in a talk in 1959 entitled

“There’s Plenty of Room at the

Bottom”. The quantum confinement

effects that arise in the nanometer scale

significantly change the particle

behaviour such as conductivity, specific

heat, energy band gap and wave lengths

of emitted light. Materials of

nonmagnetic elements become

magnetic, semiconducting and metallic

systems interchange their properties,

noble metals become reactive and brittle

materials become malleable. Quite

different properties of nanomaterial

from their bulk counterpart are due to

their extremely high surface to volume

ratio. Nanomaterials can be metals and

alloys, ceramics, glasses, polymers,

composites, carbon based and biological

materials.

Detailed knowledge of

fundamental physics and chemistry of

nanomaterial is desirable for the

fabrication of their designing

methodology. There are several

experimental techniques available to

gather information on atomic scale or

on the nanoscale. However, there are

challenges for these techniques in

determining surface and interface

structures of nanomaterials in terms of

limitations in experimental conditions

and sensitivity. In addition, the

complications in interpreting

experimental results due to wide variety

of shapes and dimension of the

Computational



nanostructures may lead to ambiguous

results. It emphasises the need of

theoretical methods for interpreting the

experimental results. In the words of

Material Scientist L. D. Marks, “small

particle structures cannot be

understood purely from experimental

data and it is necessary to

simultaneously use theoretical or other

modelling”. For nanoscale systems,

theory, modelling and simulations have

provided novel properties that have led

to new designs and materials for

nanotechnology applications. For

example, applications of carbon

nanotubes in molecular electronics or

computers were predicted first by

theory and simulations. Indeed, the

report Technology Vision 2020: The U.

S. Chemical Industry has identified

theoretical modelling as one of the key

technologies that the chemical industry

needs to revolutionize its ability to

design and optimize chemicals and the

processes to manufacture them. In view

of the growing importance of theoretical

modelling in nanoscience and

nanotechnology, the Basic Energy

Sciences and Advanced Scientific

Computing Research of the U. S.

Department of Energy organized a

workshop on “Theory and Modelling in

Nanoscience” in 2002, in which, it was

in general agreed that the new tools of

theory, modelling and simulation,

developed so far, are essential for

meeting the challenges of developing

nanoscience.

The need for significant

advances in understanding nanoscale

materials; theory, modelling and

simulation take care of various broad

classes of nanosystems: nano building

blocks such as clusters, nanoparticles,

nanotubes and quantum dots; complex

nanostructures and nano-interfaces;

dynamics, assembly and growth of

nanostructures. Since its advent,

molecular modelling has grown to the

state it is today and it became popular

being immensely benefited from the

tremendous improvements in computer

hardware and software during the last

several decades. With high computing

power using parallel or grid computing

facilities and with faster and efficient

numerical algorithms, theoretical

modelling can be very effectively used

to solve complex problems of different

branches of science as small as to

atomic or nano level. Theoretical

modelling acts as a bridge connecting

theory and experiment. It is an

interdisciplinary subject implying the

synergy of quantum, classical and

statistical physics, chemistry and even

biochemistry. Depending upon the

level of theory, theoretical modelling

has been identified as Molecular

Mechanics methods and Quantum

Mechanical methods. Molecular

Mechanics methods apply classical laws

of physics to predict structures and

properties of molecules. These methods

rely on a set of parameters and

functions called a force field to



represent the interactions among atomic

species. They allow the modelling of

very large molecules, such as proteins

and segments of DNA, making it the

primary tool of computational

biochemists. Quantum Mechanical

methods can be divided into two

categories: Ab initio and Semi-empirical

methods. Ab initio (meaning “from the

beginning”) methods include Hartree-

Fock (HF), Möller Plesset Perturbation

(MP), Multi Configurations Self

Consistent Field (MCSCF),

Configuration Interaction (CI), Coupled

Cluster (CC), Quantum Monte Carlo

(QMC) and Density Functional Theory

(DFT) methods. The very popular

method of today’s computational

modelling, DFT, allows computing the

ground state energy of a system in terms

of the total electron density, rather than

the electron wave function. It has been

successfully used for determining

properties like geometric, electronic,

magnetic, optical characteristics,

phonon spectra and pressure induced

changes in a large number of molecules

of various dimensions. Semi-empirical

methods introduce several

approximations and parameters derived

from experimental data to simplify the

calculations, which make them

computationally faster than the Ab initio

methods but slightly less accurate.

Complete Neglect of Differential

Overlap (CNDO), Intermediate Neglect

of Differential Overlap (MINDO),

Austin Model 1 (AM1), Parametric

Method 3 (PM3) are some of the

popular Semi-empirical methods used in

the study of nanomaterials. There are

also methods known as Molecular

Simulation that allow rapid progress to

be made in the field of nanotechnology.

Force field algorithms are quite efficient

and are often used today. However,

quantum mechanical methods are

required to calculate electronic

properties, which increase the

computational complexity and demand

the improvement of most modern

supercomputers. Some of the

simulation tools that are appropriate for

modelling nanostructures include

Molecular Dynamics (MD), Car-

Parrinello Molecular Dynamics

(CPMD) and Monte Carlo (MC)

simulations methods. Finally,

algorithms combining the accuracy of

quantum mechanics with the low cost of

molecular mechanics lead to the

embedded Quantum

Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics

(QM/MM) approach. The advantage of

using QM/MM methods lies in treating

the active region (i.e., the site for

chemical processes involving bond

breaking and formation) accurately with

high level QM method and the

remainder of the system with low level

MM method. These methods have been

successfully applied to deal with

problems of different nanomaterials

including oxide supported metal

clusters, fullerenes, nanotubes,



biomolecules and enzymatic reaction

mechanisms.

To realize nanotechnology in its

full potential, theoretical modelling for

quantitative description of structure and

dynamics at nanoscale is the starting

point, without which the research

community would miss important

scientific opportunities in nanoscience.

In total, theoretical studies have a

crucial role in the interpretation of

experiments and also in suggesting new

possible fascinating structures and

properties of nanoaggregates. Efficient

methodologies, overcoming their

present limitations, especially in terms

of the compromises between desired

level of accuracies and/or the

computational cost would have

enormous impact in nanotechnology,

which is going to immensely benefit the

whole mankind in times to come.

About the Author: Mrs Bulumoni Kalita

has recently defended her thesis from

Department of Chemical Science,

Tezpur University. After Completing

M.Sc in Physics (2001) from Gauhati

University, she worked in IIT Guwahati

for one year and joined in Tezpur

University. She has published several

papers in highly reputed Journal

including Journal of American

Chemical Society (JACS).

A tribute to Madame Curie

Marie Curie (1867 - 1934) was a

Polish-born French chemist and

pioneer in the early field of radiology

and a two-time Nobel laureate (1903,

Physics and 1911, Chemistry). She

founded the Curie Institutes in Paris

and in Warsaw. Due to her gender, she

was not allowed admission into any

Russian or Polish universities so she

worked as a governess for several

years. Eventually, with the monetary

assistance of her elder sister, she moved

to Paris and studied chemistry and

physics at the Sorbonne, where she

became the first woman to teach.

She was introduced to Pierre Curie in

spring 1894, who let Marie work in his

laboratory. Later they married in July

1895. Her early researches, together

with her husband, were often performed

under difficult conditions, laboratory

arrangements were poor and both had

to undertake much teaching to earn a

livelihood. The discovery of

radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in

1896 inspired the Curies in their

brilliant researches and analyses which

led to the isolation of polonium, named

after the country of Marie's birth, and

radium. Mme. Curie developed methods

for the separation of radium from

radioactive residues in sufficient

quantities to allow for its

characterization and the careful study

of its properties, therapeutic properties

in particular.



Biological Function of Nitric Oxide Aswini Kalita

Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati,

Guwahati-781039, India


Nitric oxide is a chemical

compound with chemical formula NO.

This gas is an important signaling

molecule in mammals, including

humans, and is an extremely important

intermediate in the chemical industry. It

is also an air pollutant produced by

combustion of substances in air, like in

automobile engines and fossil fuel

power plants. NO is an important

messenger molecule involved in many

physiological and pathological

processes within the mammalian body

both beneficial and detrimental.[1]

Biological functions:

Appropriate levels of NO production

are important in protecting an organ

such as the liver from ischemic damage.

However, sustained levels of NO

production result in direct tissue toxicity

and contribute to the vascular collapse

associated with septic shock, whereas

chronic expression of NO is associated

with various carcinomas and

inflammatory conditions including

juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis,

arthritis and ulcerative colitis.[2] Nitric

oxide is one of the few gaseous

signaling molecules known and is

additionally exceptional due to the fact

that it is a radical gas. It is a key

vertebrate biological messenger, playing

a role in a variety of biological

processes. Nitric oxide, known as the

'endothelium-derived relaxing factor', or

'EDRF'. The endothelium (inner lining)

of blood vessels uses nitric oxide to

signal the surrounding smooth muscle

to relax, thus resulting in vasodilation

and increasing blood flow. Nitric oxide

is highly reactive (having a lifetime of a

few seconds), yet diffuses freely across

membranes. These attributes make

nitric oxide ideal for a transient

paracrine (between adjacent cells) and

autocrine (within a single cell) signaling

molecule.[3] Nitric oxide contributes to

vessel homeostasis by inhibiting

vascular smooth muscle contraction and

growth, platelet aggregation, and

leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium.

Humans with atherosclerosis, diabetes,

or hypertension often show impaired

NO pathways.[4] A high salt intake was

demonstrated to attenuate NO

production, although bioavailability

remains unregulated.[5]

Mechanism of action:

Biological



Is it not a dancing kid ?

…known as Nanokid!!!

Chemist can make everything!!!

There are several a mechanism by

which NO has been demonstrated to

affect the biology of living cells. These

include-

i) Oxidation of iron-containing proteins

such as ribonucleotide reductase and

aconitase,

ii) Activation of the soluble guanylate

cyclase, ADP ribosylation of proteins,

protein sulfhydryl group nitrosylation,

and iron regulatory factor activation.6

It was found that NO acts through the

stimulation of the soluble guanylate

cyclase, which is a heterodimeric

enzyme with subsequent formation of

cyclic GMP. Cyclic GMP activates

protein kinase G, which causes

phosphorylation of myosin light chain

phosphatase, and therefore inactivation

of myosin light-chain kinase, and leads

ultimately to the dephosphorylation of

the myosin light chain, causing smooth

muscle relaxation.7

References:

1. Hou, YC; Janczuk, A; Wang, PG

(1999). Current pharmaceutical

design 5 (6): 417–41.

2. Taylor, BS; Kim, YM; Wang, Q;

Shapiro, RA; Billiar, TR; Geller,

DA (1997). Archives of

surgery.132 (11): 1177–83.

3. Stryer, Lubert (1995).

Biochemistry, 4th Edition. pp. 732.

4. Dessy, C.; Ferron, O. (2004).

Current Medical Chemistry – Anti-

Inflammatory & Anti-Allergy

Agents in Medicinal Chemistry 3

(3): 207–216.

5. Osanai, T; Fujiwara, N; Saitoh, M;

Sasaki, S; Tomita, H; Nakamura,

M; Osawa, H; Yamabe, H et al.

(2002). Blood purification 20 (5):

466–8.

6. Shami, P. J; Moore, JO;

Gockerman, JP; Hathorn, JW;

Misukonis, MA; Weinberg, JB

(1995). Leukemia research 19 (8):

527–33.

7. Surks, H K (2007). Circulation

research 101 (11): 1078–80.

About The Author: Mr. Aswini Kalita is

pursuing his Ph.D in Indian Institute of

Technology Guwahati.

----



Polyphenols Manoj Mon Kalita Toklai Tea Research Center, Jorhat Email: [email protected]:

This article points out the varieties of the naturally available compound “polyphenol” and its utilities in various fields. Here one can find how a common people in India administer the polyphenol containing food and how it benefits to make us healthy or in other words to fight with various breathtaking diseases. Keywords: Polyphenols, Drug, Anioxidant Traditional medicine practices from plants have been used for thousands of years by people in China, India, and many other countries. The earliest records of the usage of plants as drugs are found in the Artharvaveda in India (dating back to 2000 BCE), the clay tablets in Mesopotamia (1700 BCE), the Eber Papyrus in Egypt (1550 BCE) etc. Other famous literature sources include “De Materia Medica”, by Dioscorides between CE 60 and 78, and “Pen Ts’ao Ching Materia Medica”, written around 200 CE.

Not only in the sophisticated traditional medicine practices but the modern drug technology also takes the shelter of nature to design newer drugs. Many plant derived compounds have been used as drugs either in their original or semi synthetic form. Plant secondary metabolites can also act as drug precursors, drug prototypes, and pharmacological probes. In future, plant derived compounds will still be an essential aspect for the therapeutic array of medicines available to the physician, particularly with the availability of new

hyphenated analytical methods such as LC-NMR-MS and LC-SPE-NMR to accelerate their discovery.

Although there has been a lot of work on the natural products, still a huge list of compounds is yet to be studied or explore the possibility to use in the proper way for the benefit of mankind. ‘Polyphenols’ is one of the important classes of compound having more than one phenolic group. They belong to the one of the major classes of plant secondary metabolites classified as flavonoids, lignans, stilbenes, coumarins and tannins. Several thousands of polyphenols have been identified in edible plants and they are divided into the groups according to their structure and complexity. Flavonoid is the major class of polyphenols and they are further subdivided into six families including anthocyanin, flavones, isoflavones, flavonols, flavanones and flavanols. Polyphenols is the most abundant antioxidants in the diet which could be as high as 1 g/d much higher than that of all class of phytochemicals and known dietary antioxidants. For perspective, this is approximately 10 times higher than the intake of vitamin C and 100 times higher than that of the vitamin E and Carotenoids. The main dietary sources are fruits and plant-derived beverages such as fruit juices, tea, coffee, and red wine. Vegetables, cereals, chocolate, and dry legumes also contribute to the total polyphenol intake. Turmeric is also a good source of polyphenolic compound named curcumin. Still necessary studies have not been done on this Indian spice from

Pharmaceutical



the ginger family. Not only the curcumin but the whole research on the polyphenolic compounds can be regarded as at the initial stage. The research on polyphenols, their antioxidant properties and disease prevention effects truly began after 1995. The main factor which is preventing its progress is the considerable diversity and chemical structures. Current evidence strongly supports a contribution of polyphenols to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and osteoporosis and suggests a role in the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes mellitus.

It is established that though some polyphenols, administered as supplements or with food, do improve the health status, as indicated by several biomarks closely associated with cardiovascular risk. However in some cases the key factor may not be the native polyphenols, but may be the metabolites. Glucuronides of isoflavones and epicatechin were shown to have much weaker estrogenic activity and provided no protection against oxidative stress in cells grown in vitro. These findings suggest that many studies published till now must be revaluated, in light of the new data and polyphenol bioavailability. The more interesting and the main point of attraction about polyphenols is that they can not only be used as drug but also as drug prototypes, and pharmacological probes. Following are some of the examples obtained from earlier studies. 1. As Drug prototype: According to the

definition suggested by Sneader, a drug prototype is the first compound discovered in a series of chemically related therapeutic agents.

Podophyllotoxin [Fig. 1] is a non-alkaloid toxin in the lignan family. It is a drug prototype with analogues having the same pharmacological action as the parent compounds. This antineoplastic compound isolated from plants is too toxic and not water soluble enough for clinical application and analogy with higher therapeutic indices named “Etopside” has been developed.

Fig: Red Wine

2. As Pharmaceutical Probes: In addition to their direct contribution as drugs or drug prototypes to cure human diseases, polyphenols can also be used as “pharmacological Probes”. Pharmacological probes help researchers to understand the mechanism of action of intracellular signal transductions and biological mechanisms related to human diseases, which can aid the design of better drugs. One example of polyphenols which is already discovered as pharmaceutical probe is Genistein [Fig. 2], an isoflavone found naturally in soybean. It is an inhibitor of various protein tyrosine kinase (PTK), which are essential enzymes involved in intracellular signal transduction. Genistein has been used to probe the interaction



Identify the Compound and check the answer in page no.61

between PTK and cyclic nucleotide gated (CNG) channels, which are important in mammalian olfactory and visual systems. By observing the effect of Geinstein on the CNG channels containing either homomeric or heteromeric subunits specific subunits containing binding sites for PTKs can be identified. Furthermore, the mechanism of inhibition of the CNG channels by PTKs has been studied with the aid of Genistein as a probe.

References:

1) Ramawat KG, Merillon JM (eds.); Bioactive Molecules and Medicinal Plants; Chapter DOI: 10.1007 / 978-3-540-74603-4-1; Springer 2008.

2) Scalbert A, Johnson IT, Saltmarsh M; 81(suppl):215S–7S. ; Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2005.

3) Gosh D., Scheepens A.; 53, 322 – 331; Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 2009.

4) Archivio MD’, Filesi C, Benedetto RD, Gargiulo R, Giovannini C, Masella R; Polyphenols, dietary sources and bioavailability ; Vol. 43, No. 4: 348-361; Ann Ist Super Sanità, 2007.

5) Raphael I, Natural Product: A laboratory Notebook.; Israel University Press, 1969.

6) Jeffrey B. Harborne FRS, Herbert B; The Handbook of Natural Flavonoids (Vol 1): vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii; John Willey & Sons.

About the Autor : Mr.Monoj Mon Kalita is currently working in Tocklai Tea Research Center, Jorhat, Assam.

Hand-propelled wheel cart, Indus Valley Civilization (3000–1500 BCE). Housed

at the National Museum, New Delhi.

Ink drawing of Ganesha under an umbrella (early 19th century). Ink, called masi, an admixture of several chemical components, has been used in India since at least the 4th century BC. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in early South India. Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.

A

ferocious lion excavated in Madan Kamdev close to Baihata Cariali in Assam representing the powerful Kamarupa-Palas (c. 9th–10th century A.D.)



“Development of Mesua Ferrea L Seed oil

based Polyurathane Resins”Dr. Suvangshu Dutta Supervisor: Prof. Niranjan Karak School of Science & Technology, Tezpur University, Tezpur – 784028, India Email: [email protected]

Background

Utilization of naturally renewable resources as the feed stocks for polymers is thriving all around in contemporary times. Vegetable oil is a renewable resource to be worth mentioned in this regard. These feed stocks are well accepted by the synthetic polymer chemists as well as industrialists due to assorted social, economical and environmental issues. Furthermore, there are many advantages of using vegetable oil as the feed stocks. Some of them to mention are (i) naturally renewable as can be grown wildly or agriculturally, (ii) environment friendly and bio-degradable as they are obtained from natural resources, (iii) cost effective, (iv) available in large quantities, (v) reduced risk for handling, storage and transportation due to physical and chemical stability, (vi) aptitude to facile chemical modification, (vii) possibility of recycling etc.

The vast forest resources and farm lands yield varieties of oil bearing seeds. Among them, about 350 oil bearing crops have been identified so far. A few such vegetable oils have been explored for the development of different polymeric materials like alkyd, epoxy, polyesteramide, polyurethane etc. These polymers are largely used in different industrial applications such as paints, inks, binder for composites,

adhesives etc. The vegetable oils successfully utilized so far are traditional oils like castor, linseed, soybean, sunflower, rapeseed, canola, corn, palm, tung, safflower, peanut, coconut, cottonseed etc. and non-traditional oils like rubber seed oil, kamala seed oil, mahua oil, karanja oil, neem oil, tobacco seed oil, annona squamosa oil, melon seed oil, jatropha seed oil etc. Mesua ferrea L. is a plant, locally known as Nahar, the seeds of which contain ca. 70% non-edible oil. This is a non-drying oil and the fatty acid content is consisting of 52.3% oleic and 22.3% linoleic acids as unsaturated fatty acids and 15.9% palmitic and 9.5% stearic acids as saturated fatty acids. It is available in different countries such as India, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indochina (Southeast Asia), Malay Peninsula etc.

Since its inception in the mid thirties, polyurethane is gaining vast popularity for its diversified applications in the fields of coatings, adhesives, leathers, elastomers, sealants, composites, biomaterials and many others. Polyurethane endows versatility from its block copolymeric character and the unique possibilities for tailor making their properties by varying the composition of hard and soft segments. Different vegetable oils such as castor, linseed, soybean, sunflower, argemone, corn, canola, palm, tobacco etc. have

Thesis Abstract



been investigated to synthesize different categories of polyurethanes successfully. The suitable fatty acid composition of Mesua ferrea L. seed oil indicates that it may be utilized for the synthesis of polyurethane resins along with other polymers.

Scopes and Objectives of the Present Investigation

From the literature survey, it has been found that many vegetable oils are widely used in place of petroleum based products as the raw materials in the production of many industrial products like binders for surface coatings including paints, varnishes, printing inks, soaps, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, lubricants, emulsifiers, multipurpose additives, biodiesel, plasticizers etc. Although Mesua ferrea L. (Nahar) seed oil has tremendous potential as a renewable raw material but only a few reports have been found on its utilization in the fields of medicine and biodiesel. Further, there is no report on the use of this oil in the field of polymer, except polyester resins. Thus, it comes into sight that there is no study on this oil for development of polyurethane. Under this background, the main objectives of the present investigation are as follows:

(i) To synthesize, characterize and evaluate various properties of Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane resins.

(ii) To study the effect of NCO/OH ratio on the performance of the polyurethanes as surface coating materials.

(ii) To improve the performance characteristics of these resins by blending with suitable commercially available resins.

(iii) To study the performance characteristic of the blends as matrices for conventional composites and nanocomposites.

(iv) To study the biodegradability of the virgin blends and their nanocomposites.

(v) To use polyurethane blends as binders for the preparation of industrial paints.

Chapter1 deals with the general introduction of vegetable oils and their utilization for the production of polyurethanes. A brief review on polyurethanes with special emphasis on resins from vegetable oils, their importance, history, general techniques for preparation, characterization, properties and applications have been described in this chapter. This chapter also described the scopes and objectives along with the plan and methodology of the present investigation.

Figure 1. Scientific publication as a function of publication year searched by scopus

Chapter 2 incorporates the synthesis, characterization and properties evaluation of two different types of Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane (PU) resins, poly(urethane ester) (PUE) and poly(urethane amide) (PUA) with varying NCO/OH ratios using monoglyceride and fatty amide diol of the purified oil respectively. The synthesized resins have been



characterized by measurement of physical properties like acid value, iodine value, saponification value, hydroxyl value, isocyanate value, drying time, viscosity etc. and FTIR and 1HNMR spectroscopic studies as well as GPC analysis. The synthesized resins were cured under ambient conditions followed by post-curing at 120 OC for 2 h for both the cases. Various performance characteristics of the cured polyurethane films such as hardness, flexibility, gloss, adhesion, impact resistance and chemical resistance in different media were determined. Thermal stabilities were studied as a function of NCO/OH ratio by TGA technique, which indicates the increase of thermostability with the increase of NCO/OH ratio. The chapter concludes that Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based PUE and PUA resins can be utilized as surface coating materials and PUE resins are found to be more promising in this regard. Further, high thermostability of the cured resins indicated their applicability under a range of climatic conditions.

Chapter 3 reports the enhancement in performance characteristics of the PUE and PUA resins (NCO/OH ratio = 0.5) by blending with commercially available bisphenol-A based epoxy resin and with partially butylated melamine-formaldehyde (MF) resin at different weight ratios (PU:epoxy = 40:60, 50:50 and 60:40, whereas PU:MF = 85:15, 75:25 and 60:40). All the blends were prepared by solution blending technique using poly(amido amine) hardener [for epoxy modified PUE (EM) and PUA (EA) blends] or p-tolune sulfonic acid catalyst [for MF modified PUE (MM) and PUA (MA) blends] and xylene as the solvent under ambient conditions. Performance characteristics like tensile

strength, impact resistance, adhesive strength, flexibility, hardness, elongation at break, swelling behavior and chemical resistance in different media as well as dielectric properties of the blends were studied. FTIR spectroscopic technique was used to study the crosslinking between polyurethane and epoxy/ MF resins, whereas scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to study the morphology and thermostability of the blends respectively. The results showed good compatibility between the components of the blends and significant enhancement in blend properties including thermostability and chemical resistance. In the case of EM and EA blends, EM50 (PUE:epoxy = 50:50) and EA50 (PUA:epoxy = 50:50) exhibit the optimum film performance, whereas in the case of MM and MA blends, MM25 (PUE:MF = 75:25) and MA25 (PUA:MF = 75:25) exhibit the optimum film performance.

Chapter 4 includes the studies on the preparation, characterization and evaluation of performance characteristics of the epoxy and MF modified Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane composites reinforced with jute fiber and nanocomposites reinforced with bentonite nanoclay. Jute fiber reinforced composites were prepared by using epoxy and MF modified PUE and PUA resin blends through solution impregnation followed by curing at ca.130-140 OC under pressure of ca. 35-40 kg/cm2 for ca. 2 h. Mechanical properties like tensile strength, flexural strength, elongation at break, hardness and density of all the composites were measured and compared. FTIR spectroscopy and SEM techniques were utilized to understand the mode of



interaction between the filler and the matrix of the fractured composite samples. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques were employed to analyze the thermal behavior of the composites. The study showed their high thermostability and high glass transition temperatures (Tg). All the properties were found to be much better for epoxy modified polyurethane composites than MF modified ones.

The chapter also describes the preparation, characterization and evaluation of performance characteristics of the epoxy modified polyurethane nanocomposites with different weight % of clay loadings (1%, 2.5% and 5%). The partially exfoliated nanocomposites were characterized by FTIR, XRD and SEM techniques. The chapter reports the nanocomposites to exhibit tremendous improvement in performance characteristics including barrier properties as compared to the pristine polymers. PUE nanocomposites were found to be better in all aspects than the PUA nanocomposites.

Figure 2. TEM images of nanocomposites

(a) EM50/NC2.5 and (b) EA50/NC2.5

Chapter 5 describes the biodegradation of the above mentioned Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane blends and nanocomposites. The blends were studied for biodegradation with two techniques viz. microbial degradation (broth culture technique) and natural soil

burial degradation. Microorganism attack after the soil burial biodegradation of 180 days was realized by the measurement of loss in weight and mechanical properties. Biodegradation of the films was also evidenced by SEM, TGA and FTIR spectroscopic studies. The study showed that the chief mechanism behind biodegradation is the rupture of ester linkages. The study further depicts the EM50 blend to be more biodegradable than the MM25 blend.

One major finding of the work mentioned in this chapter is the higher extent of biodegradation of the polyurethane nanocomposites (PUE/EP or PUA/EP) than the corresponding pristine polymers as reflected from the broth culture technique. The rate of biodegradation was found to be a little higher for the PUE cases than the PUA cases.

Figure 3. SEM micrographs of the

biodegraded nanocomposites (a) EM50/NC2.5 and (b)

The chapter also includes the cytotoxicity study of the blends and the nanocomposites by a simple anti-hemolytic test. All the nanocomposites showed overall non-cytotoxicity. Thus the chapter concludes that Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane blends as well as nanocomposites have incredible prospect to be utilized as biomaterials.



Chapter 6 reports the application of Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane blends with MF and epoxy resins as binder materials for industrial stoving paint. The preparation, characterization and properties of this stoving paint are described in this chapter. Maximum part of the work was carried out in a paint industry using their set up to establish the commercial viability of the resins. The results indicate that these resins could be used for low cost stoving deep color paints. Various parameters that reflect the performance characteristics of the test paints are found to be comparable with the standard industrial paint. Among the two test paints, the PUE/epoxy based one seems to be more effective in terms of performance characteristics than the PUE/MF based paint. The study reveals their perspectives for successful utilization as high performance stoving paints.

Figure 4. TG thermograms of the paints

Chapter 7, the last chapter of the thesis includes the concluding remarks, high lights of the findings and future scopes of the present investigation. The major achievements of the present investigation are as follows: i) A highly potential non-edible

vegetable oil (Mesua ferrea L.) is utilized as value added polymeric product.

ii) Mesua ferrea L. seed oil was successfully utilized for the first time to prepare industrially important polyurethane resins.

iii) The blending technique with commercial epoxy or melamine-formaldehyde resin significantly improved the film properties especially thermal stability and chemical resistance of Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane resins.

iv) Fabrication of the resins into both conventional as well as nanocomposites caused tremendous improvement in performance characteristics.

v) Biodegradability and cytotoxicity studies of the Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based resins and nanocomposites showed their potential to be applicable as biomaterials.

vi) The Mesua ferrea L. seed oil based polyurethane resins were used for the first time to investigate the viability of commercial utilization as binders for industrial stoving paints.

Publications: 1) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak,

Progress in Organic Coatings, 2005, 53, 147.

2) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Eurasian Chemico Technological Journal, 2005, 7, 251.

3) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Polymer International, 2006, 55, 49.

4) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, M.A. Farhat Hussain, Materials Science Indian Journal, 2006, 6, 15.

5) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Pigment and Resin Technology, 2007, 36, 74.



6) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Tirthankar Jana, Progress in Organic Coatings, 2009, 65, 131.

7) Niranjan Karak, Harekrishna Deka, Suvangshu Dutta, Proc. Intl. Conf. Nano. Mater. Nanocomp., 2009, 1, 229 (ISBN : 978-81-906027-5-4).

8) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Jyoti Prasad Saikia and Bolin Kumar Konwar, Bioresource Technology, 2009, 100, 6391.

9) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Sasidhar Baruah, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2010, 115, 843.

10) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Materials Science Indian Journal, (Accepted, 2010).

11) Suvangshu Dutta, Niranjan Karak, Jyoti Prasad Saikia and Bolin Kumar Konwar, Journal of Polymers and the Environment, In Press (DOI: 10.1007/s 10924-010-0161-8), 2011.

In 1971, American chemist Richard F. Heck discovered a previously unknown carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction mediated by palladium, which forms substituted olefins. He later taught at the University of Delaware, but retired with some frustration in 1989 when his funding was canceled and he was unable to obtain corporate or government grants to further his research. In retirement he was once quoted as saying, "I'm not doing any chemistry anymore, but I think I've done my share".

Ei-ichi Negishi was born in Changchun, China while it was under Japanese rule, and studied at the Universities of Tokyo and Pennsylvania. He worked two stints of several years for the Teijin chemical conglomerate in Japan, before and after earning his doctorate, and then came to Purdue Japanese chemist Akira Suzuki and his colleague, Norio Miyaura, developed what is now termed the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction, or "Suzuki coupling", in 1981. A chemical reaction that employs boronic acids or esters, Suzuki coupling is a form of palladium-catalyzed cross couplings, distinct in that it uses organoborons. ‘Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or

happy ‘- Norman Vincent Peale



Faces of the Issue 1) Mr. Jayanta Madhab Borah

Mr. Jayanta Madhab Borah of Majuli, Jorhat, Assam, has completed his schooling from Phulani High School, Majuli, Assam. He did his higher secondary and B. Sc. from J. B. College, Jorhat, Assam and M. Sc. from Gauhati University, Guwahati in 2005. Currently he is working as a CSIR Senior Research Fellow, at Materials Science Division, CSIR-NEIST (formerly RRL, Jorhat), Jorhat, Assam under the supervision of Dr. Sekh Mahiuddin. Recently he has submitted his PhD thesis entitled “Adsorption of simple aromatic organic acids/anions at the α-alumina/water interface: influence of functionality and background electrolytes". His primary research interest is related to the adsorption of natural organic matter (NOM) analogues at the solid/liquid interface. Ion specificity at the solid/liquid as well as liquid/vapor interface is the prime focus of his research. He has emphasized his studies on surface complexation and the mineral dissolution phenomenon by using different spectroscopic techniques and has, so far, published six research papers in peer reviewed journals.

2) Mr. Sanjeeb Sutradhar

Mr. Sanjeeb Sutradhar hailing from Dhing, Nagaon has completed M.Sc from IIT Guwahati in 2010 in Chemistry. He had completed his B.Sc from Nagaon College in 2008. He received several academic awards and honors throughout his academic career. He also worked in Tezpur University as summer trainee during his bachelor course. He is looking forward to go abroad for pursuing his Ph.D. 3) Mr. Aswini Kalita

Mr. Aswini Kalita, born in the Village

Hazarikapara, Sipajhar, Darrang is

currently pursuing his Ph.D in

IITGuwahati. He has completed is B.Sc

with 1st Class First position from B.

Barooah College and M.Sc with same

position from Gauhati university in

2009. His Research area is bioinorganic

chemistry. He has been selected for

Summer Research Fellowship



Programme (May- July, 2007) sponsored

by Indian Academy of Sciences

(Bangalore), Indian National Science

Academy (New Delhi), and National

Academy of sciences (Allahabad), India

and worked under Prof. B. C. Ranu of

IACS, Kolkata.

4) Mr. Monoj Mon Kalita

Mr. Monoj Mon Kalita born in Guwahati. He has completed B.Sc. degree from B. Borooah College in the year 2007 in chemistry securing first class 16th position and M.Sc. degree from Tezpur University in Applied Chemistry (Special paper on Medicinal Chemistry) in 2009 securing first class 6th position. After passing out from Tezpur he has immediately joined Tocklai Experimental Station, Jorhat as JRF and is working till now. He has one publication at “Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews” for the work carried out under the guidance of Dr. Ruli Borah, Tezpur University department of Chemical Sciences, during the final semester of M.Sc. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn

as if you were to live forever - Mahatma Gandhi

What makes a good PhD student?

Some tips for PhD students.

� Choose a supervisor whose work you admire and who is well supported by grants and departmental infrastructure.

� Take responsibility for your project.

� Work hard — long days all week and part of most weekends. If research is your passion this should be easy, and if it isn't, you are probably in the wrong field. Note who goes home with a full briefcase to work on at the end of the day. This is a cause of success, not a consequence.

� Take some weekends off, and decent holidays, so you don't burn out.

� Read the literature in your immediate area, both current and past, and around it. You can't possibly make an original contribution to the literature unless you know what is already there.

� Plan your days and weeks carefully to dovetail experiments so that you have a minimum amount of downtime.

� Keep a good lab book and write it up every day.

� Be creative. Think about what you are doing and why, and look for better ways to go. Don't see your PhD as just a road map laid out by your supervisor.

� Develop good writing skills: they will make your scientific career immeasurably easier (hence try to contribute to NEQUEST!!!).

� To be successful you must be at least four of the following: smart, motivated, creative, hard-working, skilful and lucky. You can't depend on luck, so you had better focus on the others!

Answer from the page 53 is Ascaridol



Letter from the member I feel proud being a member of “North East Research Forum”. I have been

benefited greatly by the forum from initial stage till today. I would like to thank to the members of the forum for helping me, specially sending articles of different journals as per require for my R & D activities. All the members of the forum are just like a family and help each other selflessly. This is the specialty of the forum. It is one of the best platforms for interaction, sharing idea, thoughts, experiences, knowledge of researcher involving in different fields of work. The forum may also look forward for up gradation of knowledge/idea of the college/school students in all aspect of NE Region. We know that NE Region is very rich in natural resources, but due to lack of awareness and scientific knowledge among the common people, all the resources not explored properly. So the forum may take positive approach for exploration of natural resources and up- liftment of socioeconomic condition of common people by utilization of their scientific knowledge. The NEQUEST may be circulated among the students of schools/colleges/ universities more widely for sharing our idea, knowledge and thoughts upto grass root level. It will help not only students but also common people of the NE region. Finally I pray for long life of the forum.

Mr. Chandan Tamuly, Scientist C, NEIST, Jorhat (Arunachal Pradesh branch)

From the Facebook

Reader’s Page



PostDoc Positions available in Battery Storage System

Engineering for Electromobility in Megacities for a period of 3

years in Singapore Job Description

Technische Universität München (TUM) and National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore have signed a long-term agreement for the "TUM CREATE Centre for Electromobility". This research cooperation will work on all relevant topics regarding electric mobility, with a special focus on the special requirements for its implementation in a tropical megacity. Those requirements concern climate, infrastructure and users. Several institutes from TUM and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are taking part in this interfaculty project and will do fundamental and technology research in the areas energy storage, information technology, engineering and infrastructure. We are looking for three dedicated and creative research fellows especially in the following research fields: • Modeling and simulation of abuse behavior for safety requirements of Lithium Ion Battery Systems. • Research on battery lifetime, including modeling and battery cell post mortem analyses. • Algorithms for battery state determination as part of battery quality control method and as part of battery management systems. The positions are funded for a period of 3 years, which will be spent full time in Singapore. Starting date is in the first quarter of 2011. Requirements 1. Excellent Ph.D. in electrical engineering or in electrochemistry or an equivalent field. 2. Willingness for a long-term stay abroad in Asia, ideally international experience. 3. Languages: English (fluent), German would be an advantage but is no requirement. 4. Ability to build up and lead a small group of Ph.D. students 5. Interest/ideally experience in battery storage systems Contact Prof. Dr. Andreas Jossen Department of Electrical Energy Storage Systems Technische Universitaet Muenchen Arcissstrasse 21, 80333 Munich E-Mail: [email protected] Homepage: www.ees.ei.tum.de

Fellowship/ Advertisement/Opportunity



Maderas Rainforest Conservancy Scholarship for Education

and Training in Field Primatology Maderas Rainforest Conservancy (MRC), the American Society of Primatologists (ASP) will offer two scholarships annually to outstanding undergraduate and graduate students for research and career training in a field course at La Suerte Biological Research Station, Costa Rica or Ometepe Biological Research Station, Nicaragua. The goals of the MRC are to advance research, education and conservation of primates and tropical forests. We encourage interested students from anywhere in the world to apply. The scholarship provides full tuition for an approximately one month course including room and board (3 meals/day), instruction, access to all facilities at the field site and in-country transportation to and from the field site. All courses are taught in English and students can select the course and field site they wish to attend. The scholarship does not include airfare to Costa Rica or Nicaragua, books, supplies, field equipment, medical insurance, or hotel/meals the first and last night in San Jose, Costa Rica or Managua, Nicaragua. Field courses are offered during December-January and from May through August. Information about the history and location of the field sites, facilities, course offerings, course syllabi, research opportunities, primate species present, and a list of La Suerte/Ometepe teachers and alumni can be found at www.maderasrfc.org/Maderas_Rainforest_Conservancy/Home.html. For more information visit: https://www.asp.org/grants/scholarship/index.cfm

PhD position in Biostatistics, Belgium

Job description

Authorities and official bodies world-wide require animal experiments in order to be able to guarantee the safety of clinical tests on humans for medical products. Through implementation of what they call the “3Rs” initiative, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has been striving to develop alternative product testing methods that will: Reduce the number of animals used in testing, Refine testing procedures so animals experience less pain and distress; or Replace animals with non-animal testing systems. The goal of this project is to (1) investigate innovative statistical approaches that offer ways to reduce the number of animals in future toxicology studies, and (2) to obtain more information from existing data sets (through e.g. better study design, dose-response models, complex hierarchical clustering models, longitudinal models,…).

Profile and diploma

� You have a master degree in (bio)statistics or an equivalent degree; � You are acquainted with statistical methodologies and had exposure to computer

programming. Knowledge of statistical software such as SAS, S-Plus, R, StatXact, etc. is advantageous;

� You are intrinsically motivated and goal oriented; � You enjoy working in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment;



� You are willing to closely collaborate with a pharmaceutical industry partner and travel regularly to the region of Turnhout;

� You speak and write English fluently.

Offer

The appointment takes effect at the latest from October 1, 2011, for a period of 2 x 2 years (with evaluation after 2 years).

Further information

• Prof. dr. Christel Faes, +32 11-26 82 85, [email protected] • Prof. dr. Helena Geys, +32 14-60 67 19, [email protected]

Content terms of employment and selection procedure: Yves Soen, 011-26 80 85, [email protected]

Application

Applicants must use the official application forms can be downloaded from http://www2.uhasselt.be/actueel/vacatures/vac320632e.asp

Please add a copy of your diploma, a list of courses and your results per course.

Without these we cannot evaluate your application.

Application by e-mail will only be taken into consideration when sent to the following address: [email protected].

Scholarships available in Master programme

Company/Institution: University Rovira i Virgili Location: Tarragona, Spain Closing Date: 30 June 2011 The Master programme in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at University Rovira i Virgili offers 12 scholarships (6000 Euro/each) to international students that would like to join our Master studies in Tarragona, Spain. The Master is focused to Nano-(Bio)Chemistry. It is specially addressed to Bachelors holding a degree related to the Chemistry and Biology Sciences in a broad sense (Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Quantum Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biological Chemistry, Microbiology,..) Applicants should send an e-mail to Prof. F. Xavier Rius <[email protected]> More information in: http://www.urv.cat/masters_oficials/en_nanociencia.html

Some Ph.D. positions in Materials science



Company/Institution: Max Planck Scociety Location: Stuttgart, Germany Closing Date: 1 September 2011, Ref: 2011S The International Max Planck School for Advanced Materials (IMPRS-AM) is a joint project of the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, and the University of Stuttgart. The research interests of the IMPRS-AM cover a broad spectrum from fundamental to performance-oriented chemistry, physics and materials science. The research activities will be focused on three areas: 1) Physics and Chemistry in Low Dimensions, 2) Interface Controlled Materials, and 3) Nano-biotechnology and Biomimetics Describing the whole range of research and the top notch facilities would exceed the scope of this advert. The IMPRS-AM is an exciting, interdisciplinary PhD program that will motivate young scholars to choose a career in research. The synthesis and preparation of novel compounds, the characterization of physical and structural properties, and theoretical descriptions are closely linked together. In addition to the structured program of scientific learning, a training program in complementary skills will be provided. Finally, the courses will be conducted in English, since the program is open to all nations. The selection process is highly competitive and only about 3 % of all applicants get an offer for a Ph.D. position in one of the 24 research groups. We have openings for some PhD candidates with outstanding academic qualifications. You should hold a master degree in Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science or a related subject. Applications are welcome for the spring term 2011. For more information about the different research subjects and the modus of application please consult our web pages. Comment: A first selection of candidates will be made on the basis of their CV, transcripts etc., after which selected applicants will be invited for interviews on-site. All accepted IMPRS-AM fellows will obtain a stipend or working contract which is sufficient to cover living expenses in the Stuttgart area. Interested candidates should send their application after successful on line registration to the office of the IMPRS-AM Web: http://www.imprs-am.mpg.de Some important Link for PhD/Postdoc position a) http://academicjobs.in/ b) http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ c) http://chemseer.com/ d) http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/welcome e) http://www.postdocjobs.com/ f) http://www.intelliagence.fr/ or www.abg.asso.fr g) http://scholarships4phd.blogspot.com/



Post-doctoral position (24 months) Flavour production by

micro-organism

Company/Institution : UMR GMPA Agroparistech INRA and a food private company Workplace: Grignon - FRANCE Skill area: Biology, Medicine, Health - Chemistry Application deadline: 5/9/2011 Reference: ABG-32415 Website for UMR GMPA: http://www.versailles-grignon.inra.fr/gmpa

Mission:

The goals of the study are to evaluate the flavouring effects of micro-organisms on natural raw materials, to characterize the flavours obtained by olfaction, to look for the molecular structures responsible of their specific odours, and finally to elucidate the pathways used to produce them. Consumers are looking for more natural flavours in foods. The main objective of the work proposed by a food company for this project is to increase the offer of natural food flavouring preparations produced by food grade micro-organisms. The goals of the study are to evaluate the flavouring effects of micro-organisms on natural raw materials, to characterize the flavours obtained by olfaction, to look for the molecular structures responsible of their specific odours, and finally to elucidate the pathways used to produce them. The knowledge of the flavouring precursors in the raw materials and of the microbial metabolism should permit an optimal production of the molecules of interest and to intensify the production. The work will be realized mainly in Grignon (Yvelines, 35 km west of Paris) and for part on site of the company. Remuneration: 1,900 Euros net per month.

Candidates profile:

The post doc candidate should have experience in microbiology (e.g. microbial metabolism) and very good experience in analytical chemistry (e.g. GC, GC-MS, GC-olfactometry, HPLC, LC-MS) English is required and French would be a plus. An ability to communicate well is also required. I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the

hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the

only thing that can produce fine ideas and noble deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and

always tempts its owners irresistibly to abuse it - Albert Einstein



Are you looking for Ph.D and Postdoc. positions?

a) Technische Universität München, Germany It is a well known university in Europe with a rich background from ancient time and high-tech facility. It welcomes always students from international countries.

Applicants with a foreign university entrance qualification

• For all Bachelor and Diploma courses is required preliminary inspection

documentation (Vorprüfungsdokumentation) of your university entrance

qualification by uni-assist! • For all Master degrees, applications should be sent directly to TU München;

this also applies to applications for the “Studienkolleg” (foundation course) - i.e. no preliminary inspection documentation of the university entrance qualification is required in these cases.

• Applicants with a foreign university entrance qualification may have to attend the “Studienkolleg” (foundation course) to undergo preparation for the assessment test for study at a German university.

• Applications may be submitted from May 15 to July 15 for the winter semester and from November 15 to January 15 for the summer semester (there are a few exceptions to this rule).

• Please note: July 15 or January 15 is the deadline for receipt of the signed

application for enrolment including all application documents, not for data entry! For exact details on how to apply, which application form to use and which deadline applies, see the information pages of the course in question.

• The application deadline for Master courses is generally May 31. Please consult the relevant faculty websites for details.

• Generally speaking, it is only possible to start a diploma or Bachelor course at TU München in a winter semester (Master courses can be started in the summer semester, too).

• Note for those applying to embark on teacher training in physical education: applicants are required to pass a sports aptitude test. They must register for this aptitude test online with the University of Regensburg.

• Applications for Bachelor and diploma courses and for some Master courses are submitted online.

For more information visit http://portal.mytum.de/studium/bewerbung/bewerbung_inland/document_view http://portal.mytum.de/studium/studienfinanzierung/stipendien

b) Bayern Forchungstifung

The Bavarian Research Foundation was established in 1990. It has assets amounting to around 430 million euros and provides subsidies of approximately 20 million euros per year. Students can write a proposal and submit through a host from the Braverian state, Germany. For more information http://www.forschungsstiftung.de/index.php/Welcome.html.



c) Max Planck Research School Mathematics

The International Max Planck Research School Mathematics in the Sciences, supported by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, Germany, offers PhD fellowships for qualified students with an excellent background in mathematics or related fields. The fellowships will include a generous stipend, and there will be no tuition fees. Teaching will be in English. In addition, German language courses will be provided free of charge. For more information: http://www.imprs-mis.mpg.de/

d) Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds

The Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds is a public foundation - an independent, not-for-profit institution for the exclusive and direct promotion of basic research in biomedicine. It supports researchers and projects aimed to experimentally elucidate basic phenomena of human life and pays particular attention to the promotion of junior scientists. The Foundation awards long-term fellowships to PhD students, supporting some 110 PhDs worldwide at the same time. It grants travel grants to PhD students and post-doctoral scientists to enable them to participate in short-term practicals in laboratories further afield or in scientific courses, e.g. summer or winter schools. In both programmes, the Foundation supports Europeans working in Europe and overseas and students from overseas working in Europe. It awards fellowships to medical students who study in Germany to give them the opportunity of pursuing excellent research. The Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds is a foundation specifically geared to and intended for people.

The Inventor of Zero

Arya Bhata was born about 476 AD in India, probably in central India, though nobody knows for sure. When Arya Bhata was a teenager, he left his hometown and went to Kusumapura (modern Patna), on the banks of the Ganges river, to study at Nalanda university. At this time, Nalanda University was a very good college; it was one of the earliest universities anywhere. Nalanda was a Buddhist school, and King Ashoka paid for some of its buildings.. Arya Bhata believed that the earth was at the center of the universe and the sun and the planets and the stars all moved around the earth in different orbits, he saw astronomy as a process of calculating distances and movements from the earth to these orbits. To calculate these distances, you needed trigonometry, and Arya Bhata began to invent trigonometry for this purpose. Arya Bhata defined the concept of the sine and cosine, which he called jya and kojya, meaning "chord" and "perpendicular chord", and wrote down a table of sines. Arya Bhata also wrote several other books about math and astronomy, but we no longer have copies of some of them. One of these lost books is the Arya-siddhanta. In this book, Arya Bhata described ways of measuring time, like sundials and water clocks. Although we may not think of sundials and clocks and sines and tangents as all being related now, to Arya Bhata and other scientists of his time, all of these were things that you needed in order to understand the movements of the stars and the planets around the Earth.



First fours snaps are captured by Mr. Gunin Saikia and the rest by Mr. Monoj Mon Kalita

I will see you tommorow!!!

Communication!!!

Journey to future begins here!!!

You may not see me tomorrow!!!

Destination!!!

Smoking Kill!!!

Through the Lenses of Forum members



Details about the Northeast India Research Forum

Date of creation of the forum: 13th November 2004 Area: Science and Technology

Total number of members till date: 387 Moderators

2) Dr. Arindam Adhikari, 2) Dr. Utpal Bora, 3) Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur, 4) Dr. Khirod Gogoi

Editorial Team of N.E. Quest

1) Dr. Debananda Ningthoujam, HOD, Dept. of Biochemistry, Manipur University, Imphal, India. Email: [email protected]

2) Dr. Tankeswar Nath, Tezpur University, Tezpur, India, Email: [email protected]

3) Dr. Manab Sharma, Australia, Email: [email protected]

4) Dr. Babita Baruwati, Bangalore, India, Email: [email protected]

5) Dr. Pranjal Saikia, Dept. of Chemical Sciences, Institute of Science and Technology, Gauhati University, Assam, India Email: [email protected]

6) Dr. Abdul Wahab, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague Email: [email protected]

7) Dr. Pankaj Bharali, Dept. of Chemical Science, Tezpur University, Assam, India Email: [email protected]

8) Dr. Thangjam Robert Singh, Dept. of Biotechnology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, India.Email: [email protected]

9) Dr. Sasanka Deka, Dept. of Chemistry, (Nanoscience & Nanotechnology), University of Delhi, Delhi-110 007, India Email: [email protected]

10) Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, India. Email: [email protected]

11) Dr. Utpal Bora, Dibrugargh University, Assam, India. Email: [email protected]

12) Dr. Arindam Adhikari, Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, India Email: [email protected]

13) Dr. Khirud Gogoi, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA. Email: [email protected]

Cover Page designed by: Anirban Adhikari

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/northeast_india_research

http://www.neindiaresearch.org

n. e. quest volume 4, issue 4, january 2011

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