A new bis-andrographolide ether from Andrographis paniculata nees and evaluation of anti-HIV activity

Novel bis-andrographolide ether (1) and six known compounds andrographolide, 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide, andrograpanin, 14-deoxyandrographolide, (+/-)-5-hydroxy-7,8-dimethoxyflavanone, and 5-hydroxy-7,8-dimethoxyflavone have been isolated from the aerial parts of Andrographis paniculata and their structures were established by spectral data. All the isolates were tested for the anti-HIV and cytotoxic activity.     

Asymmetric bound states of spiral pairs in excitable media

We present a stable regime of asymmetric bound states for spiral pairs in a generic numerical model of a homogeneous excitable medium. In this regime, one spiral tip (slave) rotates around the other (master). Master-slave dynamics occur for both same-chirality and opposite-chirality spiral pairs in a range of parameters and initial conditions. We study the dependency of master-slave characteristics on the medium's excitation threshold and present a phenomenological model that accounts for the qualitative properties of master-slave dynamics.     

Infinite Volume Limit for the Stationary Distribution of Abelian Sandpile Models

We study the stationary distribution of the standard Abelian sandpile model in the box Λ_n = [-n, n] ^d ∩ ℤ ^d for d≥ 2. We show that as n→ ∞, the finite volume stationary distributions weakly converge to a translation invariant measure on allowed sandpile configurations in ℤ ^d . This allows us to define infinite volume versions of the avalanche-size distribution and related quantities. The proof is based on a mapping of the sandpile model to the uniform spanning tree due to Majumdar and Dhar, and the existence of the wired uniform spanning forest measure on ℤ ^d . In the case d > 4, we also make use of Wilson’s method. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Forced folding and structural analysis of metastable proteins

A significant fraction of the proteins encoded by the human and other genomes appears to be significantly unfolded in vitro. This will undoubtedly hamper attempts to characterize their structure by classical crystallographic or solution NMR methods. Here we show that encapsulation of a metastable protein within the restricted volume a reverse micelle can be used to force fold the protein and allow its characterization by modern methods of NMR spectroscopy. This may have significant utility in the context of structural proteomics. In addition, variation of the inner volume of the reverse micelle can be used to probe the character of the manifold of unfolded states.     

Magnetic alignment in nominally non-magnetic hexagonal metal hydrides: NMR

Powders of three hexagonal metal-hydrides or -deuterides are found to align in 4.4–8.3 T magnetic fields used for NMR. The field-alignment is unexpected, since all three systems have very small susceptibilities, as demonstrated by sharp NMR lines. The extent of alignment runs from nearly complete to barely detectable in ZrBe₂(H,D)_x, LuD₃, and YD₃, respectively. The preferred alignment direction in ZrBe₂(H,D)_x is with the crystallites’ c-axis perpendicular to B, while the c-axis and B tend to be parallel in LuD₃ and YD₃. The susceptibilities χ_|| and χ are determined from bulk magnetization measurements in aligned ZrBe₂H_1.4 powder. The alignment must be considered for proper analysis of NMR spectra in these and related materials.     

Polystyrene Microspheres in Tissue-Simulating Phantoms Can Collisionally Quench Fluorescence

Tissue-simulating phantoms that replicate intrinsic optical properties in a controlled manner are useful for quantitative studies of photon transport in turbid biological media. In such phantoms, polystyrene microspheres are often used to simulate tissue optical scattering. Here, we report that using polystyrene microspheres in fluorescent tissue-simulating phantoms can reduce fluorophore quantum yield via collisional quenching. Fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy was employed to characterize quenching in phantoms consisting of a fluorescein dye and polystyrene microspheres (scattering coefficients _s 100-600cm^–1). For this range of tissue-simulating phantoms, analysis using the Stern-Volmer equation revealed that collisional quenching by polystyrene microspheres accounted for a decrease in fluorescence intensity of 6-17% relative to the intrinsic intensity value when no microspheres (quenchers) were present. The intensity decrease from quenching is independent of additional, anticipated losses arising from optical scattering associated with the microspheres. These results suggest that quantitative fluorescence measurements in studies employing such phantoms may be influenced by collisional quenching.     

Transition metal-catalyzed regio- and stereoselective aminobromination of olefins with TsNH2 and NBS as nitrogen and bromine sources

[reaction: see text] A new synthetic procedure for aminohalogenation of olefins has been developed for the preparation of vicinal haloamine derivatives in high yields by using Cu, Mn, or V catalysts with p-toluenesulfonamide (TsNH(2)) and N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) as nitrogen and bromine sources, respectively. Unprecedented regio- and stereoselectivity (anti:syn > 99:1) toward the aminohalogenation process is shown for olefinic substrates as well as transition metal catalysts.     

Structural, magnetotransport and morphological studies of Sb-doped La2/3Ba1/3MnO3 ceramic perovskites

We report here the structural, magnetotransport and morphological studies of Sb-doped La_2/3Ba_1/3Mn_1−xSb_xO₃ perovskite manganites. Pristine material La_2/3Ba_1/3MnO₃ (LBMO) shows two insulator-metal (I-M) transitions in the electrical resistivity-temperature (ρ-T) behavior. While the higher temperature transition (T_P1) at ∼340 K is reminiscent of the usual I-M transition in manganites, the lower temperature transition (T_P2) at ∼250 K has been ascribed to the grain boundary (GB) effects arising out of the ionic size mismatch between the ions present at the rare-earth site (La³⁺ and Ba²⁺). With Sb-doping T_P1 shifts to lower temperatures while T_P2 remains invariant up to 3% and shifts to lower temperature for 5%. Room temperature electrical resistivity and the peak values also increase successively with Sb-doping. Scanning electron micrographs of the samples exhibit a gradual increase in their grain sizes with Sb indicating a gradual decrease in the GB density. Shift of T_P1 with doping is explained on the basis of a competition between double-exchange and super-exchange mechanisms. The overall electrical resistivity increases and the shift in the electrical resistivity hump (T_P2) with Sb-doping is found related to be gradually decreasing GB density and the ensuing lattice strain increase at the GBs. The intrinsic magnetoresistance (MR) gets suppressed and extrinsic MR gets enhanced with Sb-doping. At T>T_P1, the electrical resistivity is found to follow the adiabatic polaron hopping model whereas the electron-magnon scattering is found to dominate in the metallic regime (T<T_P1).     

Nano Fe3O4 as magnetically recyclable catalyst for the synthesis of α-aminophosphonates in solvent-free conditions

The three component, one-pot synthesis of α-aminophosphonates has been achieved using super magnetic nano iron oxide at 50 °C under solvent-free conditions in excellent yields. The major advantages of the present method are high yields, short reaction times, magnetically recyclable catalyst, and solvent-free reaction conditions.     

1,3-Bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazolium chloride in combination with triethylamine: an improved catalytic system for hydroacylation/reduction of activated ketones

A rapid, economic, and high yielding methodology has been developed for hydroacylation/reduction of activated ketones by using 1,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazolium chloride as a catalyst in combination with triethylamine. The reaction proceeded at an ambient temperature via generating N-heterocyclic carbene in situ that interacted with the (hetero)aryl aldehyde employed. While the reduction of ketones takes place in MeOH, the hydroacylation process was found to be effective in THF for both electron rich and deficient aldehydes.