Triterpenes and limonoids of Cedrela: Distribution,biosynthesis, and 1H and 13C NMR data

Cedrela genus, a member of the Meliaceae family, presents both chemical characteristics associated with and those that distinguish it from the rest of its members. The presence of triterpenes and limonoids is the characteristic of the Meliaceae family, but the class and type of these chemical constituents are distinctive for each genus. Cedrela includes cycloartane, ursane, oleanane, tirucallane, butyrospermane, and apotirucallane triterpenes, and its limonoids belongs to six class and nine types, known as class Ia-type havanensines, class Ib-type delevoyin, class II-type gedunin, class IIIb-type andirobin, class IIIg-type mexicanolide, class IVa-type evoludone, class Va-type obacunol, class V-type limonin, and class VIII. Each of these structural arrangements includes specific traits, defined by their biosynthetic origin, which can be established by means of structural elucidation techniques, particularly ¹H and ¹³C NMR, which assisted by 2D NMR techniques, allowing to deduce their structures unequivocally. The constant presence of these skeletal arrangements in Cedrela ensures that they are its chemophenetic markers and their recurrence is an important criterion for their identity. This review is a compilation of the occurrence of triterpenes and limonoids in Cedrela genus, detailing their biosynthetic association and collecting and organizing their NMR data, with the purpose of facilitating its location, analysis, and use in the phytochemical study of species from this genus.     

Solutions in Bessel‐potential spaces for wave equations with nonlinear damping

We consider a semilinear wave equation with nonlinear damping in the whole space . Local‐in‐time existence and uniqueness results are obtained in the class of Bessel‐potential spaces . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acoustic scattering from baffled membranes that are backed by elastic cavities

An elastic membrane backed by a fluid-filled cavity in an elastic body is set into an infinite plane baffle. A time harmonic wave propagating in the acoustic fluid in the upper half-space is incident on the plane. It is assumed that the densities of this fluid and the fluid inside the cavity are small compared with the densities of the membrane and of the elastic walls of the cavity, thus defining a small parameter . Asymptotic expansions of the solution of this scattering problem as →0, that are uniform in the wave number k of the incident wave, are obtained using the method of matched asymptotic expansions. When the frequency of the incident wave is bounded away from the resonant frequencies of the membrane, the cavity fluid, and the elastic body, the resultant wave is a small perturbation (the “outer expansion”) of the specularly reflected wave from a completely rigid plane. However, when the incident wave frequency is near a resonant frequency (the “inner expansion”) then the scattered wave results from the interaction of the acoustic fluid with the membrane, the membrane with the cavity fluid, and finally the cavity fluid with the elastic body, and the resulting scattered field may be “large”. The cavity backed membrane (CBM) was previously analyzed for a rigid cavity wall. In this paper, we study the effects of the elastic cavity walls on modifying the response of the CBM. For incident frequencies near the membrane resonant frequencies, the elasticity of the cavity gives only a higher order (in ) correction to the scattered field. However, near a cavity fluid resonant frequency, and, of course, near an elastic body resonant frequency the elasticity contributes to the scattered field. The method is applied to the two dimensional problem of an infinite strip membrane backed by an infinitely long rectangular cavity. The cavity is formed by two infinitely long rectangular elastic solids. We speculate on the possible significance of the results with respect to viscoelastic membranes and viscoelastic instead of elastic cavity walls for surface sound absorbers.     

Bounds on the Dimension of Trivariate Spline Spaces: A Homological Approach

We consider the vector space of globally differentiable piecewise polynomial functions defined on a three-dimensional polyhedral domain partitioned into tetrahedra. We prove new lower and upper bounds on the dimension of this space by applying homological techniques. We give an insight of different ways of approaching this problem by exploring its connections with the Hilbert series of ideals generated by powers of linear forms, fat points, the so-called Fröberg–Iarrobino conjecture, and the weak Lefschetz property.     

Use of ionic liquid for the enzyme‐catalyzed polymerization of phenols

Ionic liquid and buffer mixture media are first reported in the peroxidase‐catalyzed polymerization of phenol. Yield of 100% with molecular weights of 7000 KDa, as assessed by size‐exclusion chromatography (SEC), were attained using 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate–buffer mixtures with added hydrogen peroxide. The simplicity of the process and the low vapor pressure of the solvent media allow an eco‐friendly alternative to the general synthesis of polyphenolic‐type biopolymers. Evidence for the consequent polyphenol (PPO) was obtained from solid‐state ¹³C cross‐polarization magic angle spinning (CP‐MAS) NMR spectroscopy and FT‐IR. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rapid detection of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aspergillus flavus</Emphasis> in rice using biofunctionalized carbon nanotube field effect transistors

Popularity of new psychoactive substances, known as legal highs or herbal highs, is continuously growing. These products are typically sold via internet and in so-called head shops. The aim of this study was to identify active ingredients of herbal highs and to compare their chemical composition. Twenty-nine various products seized by the police in one of the “head shops” were analysed. Herbal mixtures (0.2 g) were prepared by ultrasonic-assisted extraction with 2.0 ml of ethanol for 2 h. The extracts were analysed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The main active compounds of the herbal mixtures were synthetic cannabinoids: JWH-018, JWH-073 and cannabicyclohexanol (CP-47,497-C8-homolog). Their content differed between the products; some contained only one cannabinoid whereas the others contained two or more. Cluster analysis and principal component analysis revealed that chemical composition of many products was very similar. The similarity was connected with their flavour and not the common name. This statement was true for the synthetic cannabinoids, other potential agonists of cannabinoid receptors (amides of fatty acids) and ingredients of natural origin and confirms that herbal highs are a threat to human health because the purchaser has no information on their real composition.     

CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> corrosion inhibition by hydroxyethyl,aminoethyl, and amidoethyl imidazolines in water–oil mixtures

The corrosion behavior of hydroxyethyl, amino ethyl and amid ethyl imidazolines corrosion inhibitors was evaluated by using potenthiodynamic polarization curves, linear polarization resistance, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. Solutions included deaerated 3% NaCl, 3% NaCl+diesel saturated with CO₂ at 50 °C with and without inhibitors. Regardless of the presence of diesel, the corrosion rate was decreased with the addition of the inhibitors, but the time to reach a steady state was longer than when the oily part, i.e., diesel, was present. In the absence of the oily part, the impedance results showed that the film formed was porous, allowing the electrolyte to diffuse through it and corrode the metal. When the oily part was present, the film formed was much more stable, not porous, and did not allow the electrolyte to corrode the sample. The most efficient inhibitor was the amid ethyl imidazoline, whereas the least efficient was the hydroxyethyl imidazoline, because the film formed by the former was much more stable from the beginning of the test.     

Efficient numerical analysis of optical imaging data: A comparative study

The computational efficiency of 14 optical detectors over six types of transformations, namely: blur, illumination, rotation, viewpoint, zoom, and zoom-rotation changes, was analyzed. Images with the same resolution (750 × 500 pixels) were studied, in terms of correspondences, repeatability and computing time, and the correspondence was measured by using homographies i.e. projective transformations, to obtain the best efficiency for imaging applications. Results show that the multi-scale Harris Hessian detector is the most efficient for blur, illumination, and zoom-rotation changes. Meanwhile, multi-scale Hessian and Hessian Laplace are the best methods for rotation, viewpoint, and zoom changes.     

Isotretinoin and Thalidomide Down-Regulate c-MYC Gene Expression and Modify Proteins Associated with Cancer in Hepatic Cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of liver cancer. The number of cases is increasing and the trend for the next few years is not encouraging. HCC is usually detected in the advanced stages of the disease, and pharmacological therapies are not entirely effective. For this reason, it is necessary to search for new therapeutic options. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the drugs isotretinoin and thalidomide on c-MYC expression and cancer-related proteins in an HCC cellular model. The expression of c-MYC was measured using RT-qPCR and western blot assays. In addition, luciferase activity assays were performed for the c-MYC promoters P1 and P2 using recombinant plasmids. Dose-response-time analyses were performed for isotretinoin or thalidomide in cells transfected with the c-MYC promoters. Finally, a proteome profile analysis of cells exposed to these two drugs was performed and the results were validated by western blot. We demonstrated that in HepG2 cells, isotretinoin and thalidomide reduced c-MYC mRNA expression levels, but this decrease in expression was linked to the regulation of P1 and P1-P2 c-MYC promoter activity in isotretinoin only. Thalidomide did not exert any effect on c-MYC promoters. Also, isotretinoin and thalidomide were capable of inducing and repressing proteins associated with cancer. In conclusion, isotretinoin and thalidomide down-regulate c-MYC mRNA expression and this is partially due to P1 or P2 promoter activity, suggesting that these drugs could be promising options for modulating the expression of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in HCC.