Monodentate coordinated chromate(VI) ion in [Cu(phen)<Subscript>2</Subscript>OCrO<Subscript>3</Subscript>](phen)<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>·4H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O completing the square pyramidal geometry of the copper(II) in the solid state

Novel copper(II) complex of the formula [Cu(phen)₂OCrO₃](phen)_0.5 ·4H₂O (1) (phen = 1,10-phenantroline) was prepared in the crystalline form and characterized by X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic methods (IR-FIR, NIR-Vis–UV, EPR). In the solid state, the CuN₄O chromophore adopts a slightly distorted square-pyramidal geometry around the Cu²⁺ ion with a magnitude of a distortion parameter τ = 0.14. The chromate unit in (1) was found to be a monodentate.     

Complexation of 2,6-bis(acylamino)pyridines with dipyridin-2-ylamine and 4,4-dimethylpiperidine-2,6-dione

Intermolecular hydrogen bonds between 2,6-bis(acylamino)pyridines and dipyridin-2-ylamine as well as 4,4-dimethylpiperidine-2,6-dione are responsible for relatively strong interactions between these species. Association has been found to be significantly affected by the size of acyl substituent (chemical shift of the NH proton was used as the main probe in determination of the association constants). Calculations at the DFT level of theory are in line with the experimentally observed results. Calculated energies of the interactions between the complex congeners also show the size of the substituent to affect the association. Conformational changes in the dipyridin-2-ylamine molecule are shown to adapt a geometry suitable for formation of efficient hydrogen bonding.     

Synthesis, characterization, and thermal properties of diacrylic/divinylbenzene copolymers

In this article, synthesis, characterization, and thermal properties of diacrylic/divinylbenzene copolymers based on the new aromatic tetrafunctional acrylate monomers are presented. The new monomers were generated by treatment of epoxides derived from various aromatic diols: naphthalene-2,3-diol (NAF), biphenyl-4,4′-diol (BIF), bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)methanone (BEP) or 4,4′-thiodiphenol (BES), and epichlorohydrin with acrylic acid. The addition reaction was carried out by a ratio of 0.5 mol of suitable epoxy derivative and 1 mol of acrylic acid in the presence of 0.7 wt% of triethylbenzylammonia chloride (TEBAC) as a catalyst and 0.045 wt% of hydroquinone as a polymerization inhibitor. The chemical structure of the prepared acrylate monomers was confirmed by ¹³C NMR and GC MS spectra. The emulsion–suspension polymerization of acrylate monomers with divinylbenzene (DVB) in the presence of pore-forming diluents (toluene + decan-1-ol) allowed obtaining microspheres containing pendant functional groups (hydroxyl groups). This process was carried out at constant mol ratio of acrylate monomers: DVB (1:1), and constant volume ratio of pore-forming diluents to monomers (1:1). The different concentrations of toluene in the mixture with decan-1-ol were used for qualifying the effect of the diluents on the microsphere characteristics. The influence of synthesis’s parameters on the properties of copolymer beads, e.g., pore size and surface area by BET method, the surface texture by AFM, swelling behavior in polar and non-polar solvents as well as thermal stability by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG) was studied and discussed.     

Chlorometallate(III) ionic liquids as Lewis acidic catalysts--a quantitative study of acceptor properties

The Gutmann Acceptor Number (AN), which is a quantitative measure of Lewis acidity, has been estimated using the (31)P NMR chemical shift of a probe molecule, triethylphosphine oxide, for a range of chlorometallate(III) ionic liquids, based on Group 13 metals (aluminium(III), gallium(III) and indium(III)) and the 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium cation, at different compositions. The results were interpreted in terms of extant speciation studies of chlorometallate(III) ionic liquids, and compared with a range of standard molecular solvents and acids. The value of these data were illustrated in terms of the selection of appropriate ionic liquids for specific applications.     

Instability of solitons under flexure and twist of an elastic rod

We study the stability of planar soliton solutions of equations describing the dynamics of an infinite inextensible unshearable rod under three-dimensional spatial perturbations. As a result of linearization about the soliton solution, we obtain an inhomogeneous scalar equation. This equation leads to a generalized eigenvalue problem. To establish the instability, we must verify the existence of an unstable eigenvalue (an eigenvalue with a positive real part). The corresponding proof of the instability is done using a local construction of the Evans function depending only on the spectral parameter. This function is analytic in the right half of the complex plane and has at least one zero on the positive real axis coinciding with an unstable eigenvalue of the generalized spectral problem.     

Ray class fields generated by torsion points of certain elliptic curves

We first normalize the derivative Weierstrass ???-function appearing in the Weierstrass equations which give rise to analytic parametrizations of elliptic curves, by the Dedekind ??-function. And, by making use of this normalization of ???, we associate a certain elliptic curve to a given imaginary quadratic field K and then generate an infinite family of ray class fields over K by adjoining to K torsion points of such an elliptic curve. We further construct some ray class invariants of imaginary quadratic fields by utilizing singular values of the normalization of ???, as the y-coordinate in the Weierstrass equation of this elliptic curve, which would be a partial result towards the Lang?CSchertz conjecture of constructing ray class fields over K by means of the Siegel?CRamachandra invariant.     

Lebesgue measure and Hausdorff dimension of special sets of real numbers from (0,1)

We estimate the Hausdorff dimension and the Lebesgue measure of sets of continued fractions of the type a=[a ₁,a ₂,…] where a _n belongs to a set S _n ⊂ℕ for every n∈ℕ. An upper bound for the Hausdorff dimension of the set of numbers with continued fraction expansions which fulfill some properties of asymptotic densities is also included.     

Tyrosine nitration affects thymidylate synthase properties

Highly purified preparations of thymidylate synthase, isolated from calf thymus, and L1210 parental and FdUrd-resistant cells, were found to be nitrated, as indicated by a specific reaction with anti-nitro-tyrosine antibodies, suggesting this modification to appear endogenously in normal and tumor tissues. Each human, mouse and Ceanorhabditis elegans recombinant TS preparation, incubated in vitro in the presence of NaHCO(3), NaNO(2) and H(2)O(2) at pH 7.5, underwent tyrosine nitration, leading to a V(max)(app) 2-fold lower following nitration of 1 (with human or C. elegans TS) or 2 (with mouse TS) tyrosine residues per monomer. Enzyme interactions with dUMP, meTHF or 5-fluoro-dUMP were not distinctly influenced. Nitration under the same conditions of model tripeptides of a general formula H(2)N-Gly-X-Gly-COOH (X = Phe, Tyr, Trp, Lys, Arg, His, Ser, Thr, Cys, Gly), monitored by NMR spectroscopy, showed formation of nitro-species only for H-Gly-Tyr-Gly-OH and H-Gly-Phe-Gly-OH peptides, the chemical shifts for nitrated H-Gly-Tyr-Gly-OH peptide being in a very good agreement with the strongest peak found in (15)N-(1)H HMBC spectrum of nitrated protein. MS analysis of nitrated human and C. elegans proteins revealed several thymidylate synthase-derived peptides containing nitro-tyrosine (at positions 33, 65, 135, 213, 230, 258 and 301 in the human enzyme) and oxidized cysteine (human protein Cys(210), with catalytically critical Cys(195) remaining apparently unmodified) residues.     

Simulation of the opening and closing of Hsp70 chaperones by coarse-grained molecular dynamics

Heat-shock proteins 70 (Hsp70s) are key molecular chaperones which assist in the folding and refolding/disaggregation of proteins. Hsp70s, which consist of a nucleotide-binding domain (NBD, consisting of NBD-I and NBD-II subdomains) and a substrate-binding domain [SBD, further split into the β-sheet (SBD-β) and α-helical (SBD-α) subdomains], occur in two major conformations having (a) a closed SBD, in which the SBD and NBD domains do not interact, (b) an open SBD, in which SBD-α interacts with NBD-I and SBD-β interacts with the top parts of NBD-I and NBD-II. In the SBD-closed conformation, SBD is bound to a substrate protein, with release occurring after transition to the open conformation. While the transition from the closed to the open conformation is triggered efficiently by binding of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to the NBD, it also occurs, although less frequently, in the absence of ATP. The reverse transition occurs after ATP hydrolysis. Here, we report canonical and multiplexed replica exchange simulations of the conformational dynamics of Hsp70s using a coarse-grained molecular dynamics approach with the UNRES force field. The simulations were run in the following three modes: (i) with the two halves of the NBD unrestrained relative to each other, (ii) with the two halves of the NBD restrained in an "open" geometry as in the SBD-closed form of DnaK (2KHO), and (iii) the two halves of NBD restrained in a "closed" geometry as in known experimental structures of ATP-bound NBD forms of Hsp70. Open conformations, in which the SBD interacted strongly with the NBD, formed spontaneously during all simulations; the number of transitions was largest in simulations carried out with the "closed" NBD domain, and smallest in those carried out with the "open" NBD domain; this observation is in agreement with the experimentally-observed influence of ATP-binding on the transition of Hsp70's from the SBD-closed to the SBD-open form. Two kinds of open conformations were observed: one in which SBD-α interacts with NBD-I and SBD-β interacts with the top parts of NBD-I and NBD-II (as observed in the structures of nucleotide exchange factors), and another one in which this interaction pattern is swapped. A third type of motion, in which SBD-α binds to NBD without dissociating from SBD-β was also observed. It was found that the first stage of interdomain communication (approach of SBD-β, to NBD) is coupled with the rotation of the long axes of NBD-I and NBD-II towards each other. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful simulation of the full transition of an Hsp70 from the SBD-closed to the SBD-open conformation.