Asymmetric Total Syntheses,Stereostructures, and Cytotoxicities of Marine Bromotriterpenoids Aplysiol B (Laurenmariannol) and Saiyacenol A

There are marine cytotoxic bromotriterpenoids, named the thyrsiferol family that are structurally characterized by some tetrahydropyran (THP) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) rings. The thyrsiferol family belongs to natural products that are often difficult to determine their stereostructures even by the current, highly advanced spectroscopic methods, especially in acyclic systems including stereogenic tetrasubstituted carbon centers. In such cases, it is effective to predict and synthesize the possible stereostructures. Herein, to elucidate ambiguous stereostructures and unassigned absolute configurations of aplysiol B, laurenmariannol, and saiyacenol A, members of the thyrsiferol family, we carried out their asymmetric chemical syntheses featuring 6-exo and 5-exo oxacyclizations of epoxy alcohol precursors and 6-endo bromoetherification of a bishomoallylic alcohol. In this paper, we report total assignments of their stereostructures through their asymmetric chemical syntheses and also their preliminary cytotoxic activities against some tumor cells. These results could not have been achieved without depending on asymmetric total synthesis.     

Carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts: applications in organic transformations

The requirement of green and sustainable materials to prepare heterogeneous catalysts has intensified for practical reasons over the past few decades. Carbohydrates are possibly the most plentiful and renewable organic materials in nature with inimitable physiochemical properties, plausible low-cost and large-scale production, and sustainability features could be exploited in the generation of nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts. This review article outlines the organic transformations catalyzed by diverse carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts in greener and environmentally friendly processes. Selected examples are highlighted for a variety of organic reactions exploiting the proposed catalysts’ reactivity and reusability, and interactions with the intrinsic nature of the applied carbohydrate supports; advantages and speculated challenges of the introduced catalysts are deliberated as well.     

Multi-Interactions in Ionic Liquids for Natural Product Extraction

Natural products with a variety of pharmacological effects are important sources for commercial drugs, and it is very crucial to develop effective techniques to selectively extract and isolate bioactive natural components from the plants against the background of sustainable development. Ionic liquids (ILs) are a kind of designable material with unique physicochemical properties, including good thermal stability, negligible vapor pressure, good solvation ability, etc. ILs have already been used in pharmaceuticals for extraction, purification, drug delivery, etc. It has been reported that multi-interactions, like hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions, play important roles in the extraction of bioactive components from the plants. In this review, recent progress in the understanding of scientific essence of hydrogen bonding, the special interaction, in ILs was summarized. The extraction of various natural products, one important area in pharmaceutical, by conventional and functional ILs as well as the specific roles of multi-interactions in this process were also reviewed. Moreover, problems existing in bioactive compound extraction by ILs and the future developing trends of this area are given, which might be helpful for scientists, especially beginners, in this field.     

Molecular design of ambipolar redox-active molecules II: closed-shell systems

This mini-review highlights key structural features that should be taken into account when creating ambipolar redox-active closed-shell metal-free molecules. This type of compound is strongly required for the fabrication of all-organic ‘poleless’ batteries and semiconductors. The suggested strategies aimed at stabilization of both oxidized (cationic) and reduced (anionic) redox-states are based on the comprehensive analysis of the most successful structures taken from the recent publications.     

Physico-chemical aspects of polyethylene processing in an open mixer. Part 26: Formal kinetics of aldehyde and carboxylic acid formation at a constant rate

Formation of carboxylic acids at a constant rate can be easily explained. It seems to result from the formation and decomposition of α,γ-keto-hydroperoxides. Formal kinetics based on formation and decomposition of these structural units is in agreement with the experimental findings. The activation energy deduced from the calculations is negligible, in agreement with the experimental data showing the constant rate to be practically temperature independent. Comparison of the acids with the hydroperoxides and ketones formed initially shows that the rate of oxygen addition to alkyl radicals is significantly smaller than in low molecular mass liquids. The same conclusion is reached on comparing directly the acids formed on decomposition of α,γ-keto-hydroperoxides in polyethylene melt and in hexadecane. The rate of oxygen addition in polyethylene melt is closer to 2 × 10⁵ than to 6 × 10⁵ (s⁻¹) that is valid in hexadecane.It is possible to attribute the relatively small amount of aldehydes that might be formed at a constant rate to different reactions of alkoxy radicals that are not in a cage with other radicals. These alkoxy radicals result from the addition of peroxy radicals to unsaturated bonds. This addition is followed mainly by epoxide formation and simultaneous release of an alkoxy radical.     

Localization effects and measure source terms in numerical schemes for balance laws

This paper investigates the behavior of numerical schemes for nonlinear conservation laws with source terms. We concentrate on two significant examples: relaxation approximations and genuinely nonhomogeneous scalar laws. The main tool in our analysis is the extensive use of weak limits and nonconservative products which allow us to describe accurately the operations achieved in practice when using Riemann-based numerical schemes. Some illustrative and relevant computational results are provided.

     

Equilibrium in Queueing Systems with Complementary Products

We study a model of a queueing system with two complementary products/services. In our model, there is one M/M/1 system and another facility that provides instantaneous service. The two services are complementary and the customer has no benefit from obtaining just one of them. We investigate the model under various price structures and ownership assumptions.AMS subject classification: 90B22, 91A10The authors are equal in their contribution to this paper. This paper is submitted by the first author to the Tokyo Institute of Technology as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. program in the Department of Value and Decision Sciences, and the order of names was chosen in compliance with program conditions. This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant No. 237/02).     

The first total syntheses of (±)-Preussomerins K and L using 2-arylacetal anion technology

The first syntheses of newly isolated members of the Preussomerin family, Preussomerins K and L, are reported. Key steps include the functionalisation of a 2-arylacetal anion, one-pot Friedel-Crafts cyclisation-deprotection and reductive opening of epoxides.     

Initial oxidation kinetics of copper (1 1 0) film investigated by in situ UHV-TEM

Previous studies of the initial stage of oxidation on clean single crystal of Cu(1 0 0) have been extended to the case of the Cu(1 1 0) surface. The dynamic observation of the nucleation and growth of Cu oxide by means of in situ ultra high vacuum transmission electron microscopy (UHV-TEM) shows a highly enhanced oxidation rate on Cu(1 1 0) surface as compared to Cu(1 0 0). The kinetic data on the nucleation and growth of the three-dimensional oxide islands agree well with our heteroepitaxial model of surface diffusion of oxygen.