Spectroscopic detection of Saxitoxin: an alternative to mouse bioassay

Herein, we report the surface modification of quartz with a coumaryl-aza-crown-6 derivative to detect Saxitoxin using fluorescence enhancement through Photoinduced Electron Transfer and the sensitivity with this system approaches the limit of the mouse bioassay which is the current benchmark for Saxitoxin detection.     

To achieve stable spherical clusters: general principles and experimental confirmations

General principles for designing stable highly symmetrical clusters are proposed. This approach takes advantage of both the extra stability of cage aromaticity and the good geometrical balance between the outer cage and the endohedral atom. The applicability of these design principles was confirmed by gas-phase experimental observations on group 14 element cages with endohedral Al's and also is illustrated by many literature examples of diverse systems.     

The Schrödinger-Virasoro Lie Group and Algebra: Representation Theory and Cohomological Study

This article is devoted to an extensive study of an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra , introduced in [14] in the context of non-equilibrium statistical physics, containing as subalgebras both the Lie algebra of invariance of the free Schr?dinger equation and the central charge-free Virasoro algebra Vect(S¹). We call the Schr?dinger-Virasoro Lie algebra. We study its representation theory: realizations as Lie symmetries of field equations, coadjoint representation, coinduced representations in connection with Cartan’s prolongation method (yielding analogues of the tensor density modules for Vect(S¹)). We also present a detailed cohomological study, providing in particular a classification of deformations and central extensions; there appears a non-local cocycle. Communicated by Petr Kulish Daniel Arnaudon, in memoriam Submitted: January 17, 2006; Accepted: March 21, 2006     

Synthesis of spiro[4.5]decane CF-ring analogues of 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3

A novel series of analogues of calcitriol (1) is developed featuring a spirocyclic central core resulting from C18/C21-connection and C15/C16-deletion (2a, 2b). The synthesis of the key intermediate involves an Eschenmoser rearrangement of an enantiomerically pure bromo-substituted cyclohexenol.     

Lingos, finite state machines, and fast similarity searching

We apply a recently published method of text-based molecular similarity searching (LINGO) to standard data sets for the purpose of quantifying the accuracy of the approach. Our implementation is based on a pattern-matching finite state machine (FSM) which results in fast search times. The accuracy of LINGO is demonstrated to be comparable to that of a path-based fingerprint and offers a simple yet effective method for similarity searching.     

Judicious application of allyl protecting groups for the synthesis of 2-morpholin-4-yl-4-oxo-4H-chromen-8-yl triflate, a key precursor of DNA-dependent protein kinase inhibitors

[Structure: see text] 2-morpholin-4-yl-4-oxo-4H-chromen-8-yl 2,2,2-trifluoromethanesulfonate is a key intermediate for the synthesis of the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) inhibitor 8-dibenzothiophen-4-yl-2-morpholin-4-yl-chromen-4-one (NU7441). Two improved methods for the synthesis of this triflate have been developed: (A) in 35% overall yield, through modification of the published route, and (B) in 15% overall yield, by a new route employing a Baker-Venkataraman rearrangement to enable generation of the chromenone scaffold. Both syntheses depend on the judicious use of allyl protecting groups.     

Detecting fixed points of nonexpansive maps by illuminating the unit ball

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a nonexpansive map on a finite-dimensional normed space to have a nonempty, bounded set of fixed points. Among other results we show that if f: V → V is a nonexpansive map on a finite-dimensional normed space V, then the fixed point set of f is nonempty and bounded if and only if there exist w₁,..., w _m in V such that {f(w _i ) ? w _i : i = 1,..., m} illuminates the unit ball. This yields a numerical procedure for detecting fixed points of nonexpansive maps on finite-dimensional spaces. We also discuss applications of this procedure to certain nonlinear eigenvalue problems arising in game theory and mathematical biology.     

Mechanical Modeling of Particle-Droplet Interaction Motivated by the Study of Self-Cleaning Mechanisms

Motivated by the study of self-cleaning surfaces, the interaction between a spherical solid particle and a water droplet is studied on the microsale level, in terms of the balance forces and the surface properties. To define the forces acting on the solid-liquid interface, the meniscus depression is computed from the Young-Laplace equation, using a non-linear finite element formulation. The equilibrium force is derived in terms of the contact angle, particle size, and the penetration. (© 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)