Heterocyclisation of Unsaturated Phenylsulfides. Synthesis of a Novel Series of 2 Substituted-2,3-dihydrobenzothiazoles

Aminoarylhydroxy thioalkenes react with tosyl derivatives to provide mainly N substituted -2 vinyl -2,3 dihydrobenzothiazoles. A different regiochemistry of cyclization depending on whether a methyl or a phenyl susbtituent was used, was observed Formation of -2H-3,4-dihydrobenzothiazines and dienes was observed.     

Phosphorus dendrimers as viewed by 31P NMR spectroscopy; synthesis and characterization

This review emphasizes the role of phosphorus for the elaboration of dendrimers and of various highly sophisticated dendritic structures, and the invaluable role played by ³¹P NMR for their characterization and to ascertain their purity. A few properties, highlighting the importance of phosphorus are reported at the end of this review.     

Second-order homogenisation of functionally graded materials

The homogenisation theory for periodic composites is generalised to the case of quasi-periodic composites. In quasi-periodic composites, the unit cell does not repeat throughout the medium but gradually changes along one or more directions of periodicity (grading directions). Quasi-periodic composites are thus to functionally graded materials (FGMs) what periodic composites are to statistically uniform composite materials. Contrarily to most of the homogenisation methods applied to FGMs, the proposed second-order homogenisation theory takes explicitly into account the grading at the micro-level. The derived equivalent material happens to be a particular second gradient material in which few components of the strain gradient (second gradient of the displacement) should be taken into account in addition to the classical strains (first gradient of displacement). The second gradient theory therefore appears as the natural framework to appropriately handle functionally graded materials at the macro-level. It is worth mentioning that the presented second-order homogenisation procedure is somehow analogous to the one developed for periodic composite materials submitted to rapidly varying macroscopic strain fields as in regions of high gradients. In fact, both are a generalisation of the first-order homogenisation theory for periodic media and lead to a second gradient equivalent material. However, besides their different domains of application, they exhibit further substantial differences, which are highlighted in the paper.     

Cytotoxic flavonoids from two Lonchocarpus species

A new isoflavone, 4′-prenyloxyvigvexin A (1) and a new pterocarpan, (6aR,11aR)-3,8-dimethoxybitucarpin B (2) were isolated from the leaves of Lonchocarpus bussei and the stem bark of Lonchocarpus eriocalyx, respectively. The extract of L. bussei also gave four known isoflavones, maximaisoflavone H, 7,2′-dimethoxy-3′,4′-methylenedioxyisoflavone, 6,7,3′-trimethoxy-4′,5′-methylenedioxyisoflavone, durmillone; a chalcone, 4-hydroxylonchocarpin; a geranylated phenylpropanol, colenemol; and two known pterocarpans, (6aR,11aR)-maackiain and (6aR,11aR)-edunol. (6aR,11aR)-Edunol was also isolated from the stem bark of L. eriocalyx. The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated by spectroscopy. The cytotoxicity of the compounds was tested by resazurin assay using drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant cancer cell lines. Significant antiproliferative effects with IC₅₀ values below 10 μM were observed for the isoflavones 6,7,3′-trimethoxy-4′,5′-methylenedioxyisoflavone and durmillone against leukemia CCRF-CEM cells; for the chalcone, 4-hydroxylonchocarpin and durmillone against its resistant counterpart CEM/ADR5000 cells; as well as for durmillone against the resistant breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB231/BCRP cells and resistant gliobastoma U87MG.ΔEGFR cells.     

Prenylated Flavonoids and C-15 Isoprenoid Analogues with Antibacterial Properties from the Whole Plant of Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeusch (Gramineae)

The local botanical Imperata cylindrica in Cameroon was investigated for its antibacterial potency. The methanol extract afforded a total of seven compounds, including five hitherto unreported compounds comprising three flavonoids (1–3) and two C-15 isoprenoid analogues (4 and 5) together with known derivatives (6 and 7). The novelty of the flavonoids was related to the presence of both methyl and prenyl groups. The potential origin of the methyl in the flavonoids is discussed, as well as the chemophenetic significance of our findings. Isolation was performed over repeated silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography and the structures were elucidated by (NMR and MS). The crude methanol extract and isolated compounds showed considerable antibacterial potency against a panel of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial strains. The best MIC values were obtained with compound (2) against S. aureus ATCC 25923 (32 µg/mL) and MRSA1 (16 µg/mL).     

Asymptotic normality of the extreme quantile estimator based on the POT method

The POT (Peaks-Over-Threshold) approach consists in using the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) to approximate the distribution of excesses over thresholds. In this Note, we propose extreme quantile estimators based on this method. We establish their asymptotic normality under suitable general assumptions. To cite this article: J. Diebolt et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 341 (2005).