Presumptive ocular tuberculosis: A case series of rare cases.

Ocular tuberculosis (TB) may present with various clinical manifestations and may involve any part of the eye. In 80% of cases, pulmonary involvement is not found. Here, we are presenting three cases of presumptive ocular TB with three rare manifestations. The first case is of bilateral retinal detachment involving one eye after another, the second case is of tubercular phlyctenular keratoconjunctivitis with keratolysis, and the third case is of bilateral neuroretinitis with extensive cerebral involvement. Despite the availability of various tests, clinical findings, tuberculin skin test, chest X-ray, and computed tomography of the chest is still the primary basis of diagnosis of ocular TB in the tubercular endemic area, even in rare cases.

Extensive reduction in back electron transfer in twisted intramolecular charge-transfer (TICT) coumarin-dye-sensitized TiO(2) nanoparticles/film: a femtosecond transient absorption study.

We report the synthesis, characterization, and optical and electrochemical properties of two structurally similar coumarin dyes (C1 and C2). These dyes have been deployed as sensitizers in TiO2 nanoparticles and thin films, and the effect of molecular structure on interfacial electron-transfer dynamics has been studied. Steady-state optical absorption, emission, and time-resolved emission studies on both C1 and C2, varying the polarity of the solvent and the solution pH, suggest that both photoexcited dyes exist in a locally excited (LE) state in solvents of low polarity. In highly polar solvents, however, C1 exists in an intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) state, whereas C2 exists in both ICT and twisted intramolecular charge-transfer (TICT) states, their populations depending on the degree of polarity of the solvent and the pH of the solution. We have employed femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to monitor the charge-transfer dynamics in C1- and C2-sensitized TiO2 nanoparticles and thin films. Electron injection has been confirmed by direct detection of electrons in the conduction band of TiO2 nanoparticles and of radical cations of the dyes in the visible and near-IR regions of the transient absorption spectra. Electron injection in both the C1/TiO2 and C2/TiO2 systems has been found to be pulse-width limited (<100 fs); however, back-electron-transfer (BET) dynamics has been found to be slower in the C2/TiO2 system than in the C1/TiO2 system. The involvement of TICT states in C2 is solely responsible for the higher electron injection yield as well as the slower BET process compared to those in the C1/TiO2 system. Further pH-dependent experiments on C1- and C2-sensitized TiO2 thin films have corroborated the participation of the TICT state in the slower BET process in the C2/TiO2 system.

Ultrasound and deep eutectic solvent (DES): a novel blend of techniques for rapid and energy efficient synthesis of oxazoles.

The present work deals with the synthesis of novel oxazole compounds by using effective combination of ultrasound (US) and deep eutectic solvent (DES). The reaction was also conducted by thermal method (NUS) and the comparative studies are provided. It was observed that applying ultrasound not only improved yields and reduced reaction times but also saved more than 85% energy as shown by energy consumption calculations. The advantages of using DES as reaction medium is highlighted from the fact that it is bio-degradable, non-toxic, recyclable and could be easily prepared using inexpensive raw materials. The recyclability for DES was studied wherein it was found that ultrasound has no negative effects on DES even up to four runs. In addition, the present work is the first report on the combinative use of DES and US in organic synthesis.

Comparative material study and synthesis of 4-(4-nitrophenyl)oxazol-2-amine via sonochemical and thermal method.

The present paper deals with the synthesis of aminooxazole derivatives via thermal and ultrasonic methods using deep eutectic solvent as medium. It was observed that ultrasound-assisted method gave 90% yield in just 8min as against 3.5h required to get 69% yield by thermal method. One of the compounds 4-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3-oxazol-2-amine synthesized by both methods were subjected to material characterization study via XRD, TGA and SEM analysis. It was observed that use of ultrasound not only increased the rate of reaction but also improved the quality of product obtained. The crystallinity of the product from ultrasound method was 21.12% whereas thermal method fetched only 8.33% crystallinity thereby improving crystallinity by almost 60%. In addition, sonochemical synthesis also saved more than 70% energy as depicted by energy calculations.