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The development of fluorescent probes for rapid and accurate detection of hazardous nerve agents (NA) has been a main focus of research because of their use as chemical warfare agents (CWA) for mass destruction in war and terrorist attacks, and lethal toxicity for human beings. In this paper, a probe (PPID) based on the phenanthrene-imidazole unit and the 4-phenyl pyridine group was synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, and could visually detect and quantify a nerve-agent simulant diethylchlorophosphate (DCP) with excellent sensing properties in solution and in the vapor phase. The probe with the nucleophilic pyridine-N atom as the active site reacts with the electrophilic central phosphorous atom of DCP and after that catalytic hydrolysis by moisture in the DMSO solution occurs to form a protonated sensor. Interestingly, the protonated chemosensor PPIDH showed an apparent intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), leading to a large red-shifted fluorescence "turn-on" response. The effects of the ICT character on the sensing properties displayed a ratiometric fluorescence response to DCP and a low limit of detection (1.4 nM). The sensing process was also verified by test strips by loading probe PPID with DCP vapor, response time, theoretical calculations, and live cell imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that to gauge the significance of state planning in mid-twentieth century India, it is necessary to study the trajectory of what was called 'Indian political economy' during the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth. Through a close reading of selected texts, I demonstrate that the transmutation of Indian political economy into an abstract science of economics was a function of Indian nationalists' inability to hold together the 'social', 'economic', and 'ethical' spheres within a single conceptual framework. The separation of these three spheres was the enabling factor behind the conceptualization of planning as a purely technical process of economic management. Further, the article contends that these conceptual developments cannot be adequately explained with reference to either 'elite' interests or the insidious effects of 'colonial' discourses. Rather, the narrative demonstrates that economic abstractions can—and must—be grounded in the historical development of capitalist social forms that transformed the internal fabric of Indian society. Drawing on a theory of capitalism as a historically specific form of social mediation, I argue that a Marxian social history of Indian state planning can overcome certain limitations inherent in extant approaches. Finally, the interpretation proposed here opens up the possibility of putting Indian history in conversation with a broader development during the first half of the twentieth century, namely the separation of political economy into economics and sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins with a critique of the well‐known claim by Besley and Burgess concerning the negative impact of labour regulation on organized sector manufacturing performance in India. In the second part of the article, the authors use a state‐level panel data set for the period 1969–2005 to analyse the relative importance of profitability (rate of profit as a percentage of the total replacement cost of capital stock) and industrial disputes (man‐days lost to all industrial disputes as a percentage of total workers employed) to explain cross‐state variations of manufacturing performance in India's organized sector. Using three different measures of manufacturing performance — net value added, investment and employment — they find that profitability is more significant than industrial disputes in explaining the variation of manufacturing sector performance across Indian states. The findings presented here therefore question the uncritical acceptance of Besley and Burgess's results in the literature on labour regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decade of the 1980s witnessed massive changes in the internal structure and functioning of English football.1 Several rules, instituted during the infancy of the professional game to limit profit-making, were overturned with remarkable rapidity within the space of a few years, culminating in the formation of the English Premier League (EPL) in 1992. In this paper, I engage with two questions. One, why and how was the century-old structure of English football so rapidly transformed and what were the consequences? Two, what sort of Marxian theoretical framework can we use to understand the historical trajectory of English football? With respect to the former, I follow David Harvey’s analysis of neoliberal strategies used to restore upper-class dominance to argue that the formation of the EPL can be interpreted as another instance of accumulation by dispossession, one among myriad attempts to solve the profitability crisis of the 1970s by creating an avenue for financial speculation in football clubs. Together with the deregulation of television, it converted football from a domain formerly regarded as “off-limits to the calculus of profitability” into a “business proper.” In terms of a theoretical framework, I propose that it is useful to think of football as serving global capitalism in a dual manner: as an avenue for accumulation (the accumulation function) and as a tool for legitimizing capitalist rule by producing alienated consciousness in society (the legitimation function). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nerve agents are among the most deadly and lethal chemical warfare agents (CWAs). Rapid identification is crucial for specialized individuals to take action against dangerous drugs. This paper describes the synthesis and characterisation of a probe (MNFZ) based on the methoxy naphthalene-furoic hydrazide group. The probe rapidly (100 s) detects and quantifies the nerve-agent simulant diethyl chlorophosphate (DCP) in both solution and vapor phases. This sensor uses a new recognition center, furoic hydrazide, where the nitrogen atom of the imine group (CN) attacks the electrophilic core phosphorus atom of DCP, followed by the hydrolysis of the imine group in the acetonitrile (ACN) solution to produce the corresponding aldehyde MNPA. The development of ICT character resulted in a distinct red-shifted ratiometric fluorescence response to DCP, with a very low limit of detection (12.2 nM). The probe is an efficient chemosensor due to its high selectivity over other organophosphorus compounds as well as its chemical stability across a wide pH range. DFT calculations, 1 H NMR and HRMS were performed to finalize the sensing mechanism. Lastly, the as-designed sensor was successfully used to build a highly sensitive portable kit in test strips and a cotton biopolymer for simple and safe real-time monitoring of DCP.

A triphenylamine-benzothaizole-based turn-on fluorescent probe TPB-NO2 was designed and synthesized for tracking H 2 S in both environmental and biological samples depending upon the sensing strategy of thiolysis of 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP) ether. Due to PET (photoinduced electron transfer), occurring from donor triphenylamine moiety to acceptor DNP moiety, the probe TPB-NO2 itself is very weakly fluorescent and colorless in DMSO/H 2 O solution (1 : 1, v/v; 10 mM HEPES buffer, pH 7.4). But the addition of H 2 S leads to thiolysis of 2,4-dinitrophenyl ether to block the initial PET process and hence it exhibits naked eye detectable turn-on response with bright cyan fluorescence and intense brown color. Not only that, the probe exhibits excellent selectivity over other bio-thiols like Cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy), and glutathione (GSH), fast response time (<2 min), and high sensitivity with a detection limit of 9.81 nM. Moreover, to explore the practical applicability of our probe we employed it to monitor H 2 S successfully in environmental water samples, solid-state TLC strip study, Quantitative determination of H 2 S in eggs, and in the bioimaging of human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB 231).