VT-NMR and cytotoxic evaluation of some new ortho-(alkylchalcogen)acetanilides

Several novel atropisomeric N-alkyl-N-[(2-alkylchalcogen)phenyl)]acetamides have been synthesized and fully characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR, FTIR, and HRMS (FAB). The barriers of the restricted rotation about the N-aryl bond between the two atropisomeric forms were measured by accurate lineshape simulation of variable temperature NMR (VT-NMR) spectra obtained in DMSO-d₆ solution and ranged from 17.0 to 20.5 kcal/mol. The relationship between the structure of the different acetanilide moieties and both coalescence temperature and energy of rotation are herein discussed. Taking in mind the acetamide structural resemblances with nimesulide related compounds known by their anticancer activity, the in vitro cytotoxicity of 20 representative acetanilides, against human breast (MCF-7) and prostate (LNCaP) cancer cell lines as well as normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) was also preliminary evaluated. Interestingly a selective antiproliferative activity was observed for cancerous cells with prominence to LNCaP within the most potent O- and/or N-benzylic and -hexyl acetanilides.     

Synthesis of 2,6-diaryl-1,2-dihydropyridines through a 6π-electrocyclization of N-sulfonylazatrienes

The development of an efficient synthetic method toward substituted 1,2-dihydropyridines from cinnamylideneacetophenones is reported. The key intermediates N-sulfonylazatrienes were synthesized through a TiCl₄-mediated direct condensation of primary sulfonamides with the substituted (E,E)-cinnamylideneacetophenones. The 6π-electrocyclization of these intermediates, catalyzed by a Lewis acid, selectively afforded the desired products in good yields.     

Interocular induction of illusory size perception

Background  

The perceived size of objects not only depends on their physical size but also on the surroundings in which they appear. For example, an object surrounded by small items looks larger than a physically identical object surrounded by big items (Ebbinghaus illusion), and a physically identical but distant object looks larger than an object that appears closer in space (Ponzo illusion). Activity in human primary visual cortex (V1) reflects the perceived rather than the physical size of objects, indicating an involvement of V1 in illusory size perception. Here we investigate the role of eye-specific signals in two common size illusions in order to provide further information about the mechanisms underlying illusory size perception.     

Identification of the nitrate contamination sources of the Brusselian sands groundwater body (Belgium) using a dual-isotope approach

Isotopic fingerprinting is an advanced technique allowing the classification of the nitrate source pollution of groundwater, but needs further development and validation. In this study, we performed measurements of natural stable isotopic composition of nitrate ((15)N and (18)O) in the groundwater body of the Brussels sands (Belgium) and studied the spatial and temporal dynamics of the isotope signature of this aquifer. Potential nitrogen sources sampled in the region had isotopic signatures that fell within the corresponding typical ranges found in the literature. For a few monitoring stations, the isotopic data strongly suggest that the sources of nitrate are from mineral fertiliser origin, as used in agriculture and golf courses. Other stations suggest that manure leaching from unprotected stockpiles in farms, domestic gardening practices, septic tanks and probably cemeteries contribute to the nitrate pollution of this groundwater body. For most monitoring stations, nitrate originates from a mixing of several nitrogen sources. The isotopic signature of the groundwater body was poorly structured in space, but exhibited a clear temporal structure. This temporal structure could be explained by groundwater recharge dynamics and cycling process of nitrogen in the soil-nitrogen pool.     

Augmented Lagrangian for cone constrained topology optimization

Algorithmic aspects for the solution of topological shape optimization problems subject to a cone constraint are addressed in this paper. In this framework, an augmented Lagrangian method based on the concept of topological derivative is proposed. It is illustrated by some numerical experiments in structural optimization with compliance and eigenfrequency constraints and multiple loads.     

The conjugacy problem for the automorphism group of the random graph

We prove that the conjugacy problem for the automorphism group of the random graph is Borel complete, and discuss the analogous problem for some other countably categorical structures.     

Toward optimizing stream fusion in multistream recognition of speech

A multistream phoneme recognition framework is proposed based on forming streams from different spectrotemporal modulations of speech. Phoneme posterior probabilities were estimated from each stream separately and combined at the output level. A statistical model of the final estimated posterior probabilities is used to characterize the system performance. During the operation, the best fusion architecture is chosen automatically to maximize the similarity of output statistics to clean condition. Results on phoneme recognition from noisy speech indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Rosen–Morse Potential and Its Supersymmetric Partners

A set of supersymmetric partners of the Rosen–Morse potential is generated. The corresponding physical properties are studied—in particular, the change in intensity of the singularities at the boundaries of the domain.     

Disordered Fermi liquid in epitaxial graphene from quantum transport measurements

We have performed magnetotransport measurements on monolayer epitaxial graphene and analyzed them in the framework of the disordered Fermi liquid theory. We have separated the electron-electron and weak-localization contributions to resistivity and demonstrated the phase coherence over a micrometer length scale, setting the limit of at least 50 ps on the spin relaxation time in this material.     

Direct determination of diffusion properties of random media from speckle contrast

We present a simple scheme to determine the diffusion properties of a thin slab of strongly scattering material by measuring the speckle contrast resulting from the transmission of a femtosecond pulse with controlled bandwidth. In contrast with previous methods, our scheme does not require time measurements nor interferometry. It is well adapted to the characterization of samples for pulse shaping, nonlinear excitation through scattering media, and biological imaging.