Structural Study on NMR and X-Ray of Lactucopicrin—A Guaianolide Ester

The guaianolide ester is a potent inhibitor of cancer cells. Lactucopicrin, a guaianolide, shows analgesic, antitussic, and sedative activities. In order to investigate its structure, ¹H and ¹³C NMR and 2D NMR have been carried out at a proton field strength of 400 MHz and a carbon field strength of 100 Mhz in DMSO-d ₆ at 20°C. Resonances for all protons and carbons have been assigned. The results of HMQC and HMBC experiments suggest that the structure of lactucopicrin is as shown in Fig. 1. Its stereostructure is verified by the X-ray experiment. ¹H and ¹³C NMR of lactucopicrin are reported. Its 2D NMR and X-ray are reported for the first time.     

Study of the winter and summer changes of the air composition in the church of Szalowa, Poland, related to conservation

The St. Michael Archangel’s Church in Szalowa, Poland, was selected for closer investigation with respect to the indoor/outdoor air exchange and its influence on the air quality and work arts preservation. Chemical composition, size and abundance of particulate matter and concentration of gases NO₂, SO₂, O₃ inside and outside the church were determined. To study seasonal variation of the weather condition (temperature, inversion level, wind direction) and the influence of seasonal sources of the air pollution (like heating of the nearby houses), samples were collected in winter and summer time. It was stated that suspended particulate matter inside the wooden church has in general an outdoor source. Several groups of particles were distinguished such as the organic ones, soil dust, nitrates and sulphates. In case of organic and soil dust particles, the concentration inside was higher than outside. From the results, in comparison to literature data, one can conclude that accumulation of particulate suspended matter in the church is more intense than in other types of buildings. Gaseous pollutants were detected but their concentration was negligible.     

The Direct Resolution of the Enantiomers of Four Chiral Pesticides

Cellulose-tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate)(CDMPC) were synthesized as highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) chiral stationary phase(CSP). The successful resolution of four chiral pesticides on the CSP was realized and the influence of the temperature on the separation was studied.     

Phase behavior and interfacial properties of nonadditive mixtures of Onsager rods

Within a second virial theory, we study bulk phase diagrams as well as the free planar isotropic-nematic interface of binary mixtures of nonadditive thin and thick hard rods. For species of the same type, the excluded volume is determined only by the dimensions of the particles, whereas for dissimilar ones it is taken to be larger or smaller than that, giving rise to a nonadditivity that can be positive or negative. We argue that such a nonadditivity can result from modeling of soft interactions as effective hard-core interactions. The nonadditivity enhances or reduces the fractionation at isotropic-nematic (IN) coexistence and may induce or suppress a demixing of the high-density nematic phase into two nematic phases of different composition (N(1) and N(2)), depending on whether the nonadditivity is positive or negative. The interfacial tension between coexisting isotropic and nematic phases shows an increase with increasing fractionation at the IN interface, and complete wetting of the IN(2) interface by the N(1) phase upon approach of the triple-point coexistence. In all explored cases bulk and interfacial properties of the nonadditive mixtures exhibit a striking and quite unexpected similarity with the properties of additive mixtures of different diameter ratio.     

Fractal phenomena in molecular mechanics calculation

It is proposed that in molecular mechanics calculation points belonging to various stable or meta-sta-ble conformtrs are mixed up and form fractal structures in conformation space.The calculation results show the following two phenomena:(i)Two levels of structure with fractal feature were observed.Around the conformer without mirror symmetry points belonging to the conformer and its enantiomer are mixed up and form the first level of fractal structure; on the boundary of the attractive basin o{ each atlractor,points belonging to different attractors form the second level of fractal structure.(ii) The variation of molecular mechanics parameters will influence the structure and area of each attractive basin significantly The above phenomena may become the basis of a new method for solving the troublesome multi-minimum-point problem in molecular mechanics calculation.     

全硅MCM-41担载的加氢脱硫催化剂的TPR研究

用TRP技术研究了以全硅MCM-41(Si-MCM-41)和HNO3交换的全硅MCM-41(H-MCM-41)为载体制备的Ni-Mo、Co-Mo和Ni-W加氢脱硫(HDS)催化剂的还原性能，并以0．8(wt)％二苯并噻吩(DBT)的十氢萘溶液为模型化合物，在高压固定床反应器上考察了上述催化剂的加氢脱硫(HDS)反应性能。结果表明，Si-MCM-41经稀HNO3交换后，所担载的Ni-Mo和Ni-W催化剂还原性能、HDS活性和加氢活性有显著变化，但对Co-Mo催化剂影响不大。这说明在Ni-Mo／H-MCM-41和Ni-W／H-MCM-41中可能存在氢溢流现象，DBT的HDS活性与载体表面酸性和氢溢流有关。     

重要生物微量元素和常见负电性元素在不同价态和电子组态下的轨道指数和电负性

本文用Xα方法计算出不同价态与电子组态下锰、铁、钴、铜、锌及钼等过渡族重要生物微量元素和氮、氧、氟、磷、硫、氯、硒和溴等常见负电性元素的数值原子轨道和轨道电负性值,再用数值拟合方法得出这些原子轨道的单ξ和双ξSlater型基函数的指数.研究了这些元素的原子所带电荷和电子组态对其原子轨道指数与轨道电负性的影响,给出了相应的回归公式.这些公式有较高的精确度,不但为研究这些元素化合物的电子结构提供基础参数,也为电荷自洽型的计算提供较可靠的计算公式.     

Lanthanide MOFs for inducing molecular chirality of achiral stilbazolium with strong circularly polarized luminescence and efficient energy transfer for color tuning

We present herein an innovative host–guest method to achieve induced molecular chirality from an achiral stilbazolium dye (DSM). The host–guest system is exquisitely designed by encapsulating the dye molecule in the molecule-sized chiral channel of homochiral lanthanide metal–organic frameworks (P-(+)/M-(−)-TbBTC), in which the P- or M-configuration of the dye is unidirectionally generated via a spatial confinement effect of the MOF and solidified by the dangling water molecules in the channel. Induced chirality of DSM is characterized by solid-state circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) and micro-area polarized emission of DSM@TbTBC, both excited with 514 nm light. A luminescence dissymmetry factor of 10⁻³ is obtained and the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of the encapsulated DSM in DSM@TbTBC is ∼10%, which is close to the PLQY value of DSM in dilute dichloromethane. Color-tuning from green to red is achieved, owing to efficient energy transfer (up to 56%) from Ln³⁺ to the dye. Therefore, this study for the first time exhibits an elegant host–guest system that shows induced strong CPL emission and enables efficient energy transfer from the host chiral Ln-MOF to the achiral guest DSM with the emission color tuned from green to red.

Homochiral Ln-MOFs are synthesized to encapsulate achiral dyes to induce strong circularly polarized luminescence with a luminescence dissymmetry factor of 10⁻³.     

A novel catalytic heme cofactor in SfmD with a single thioether bond and a bis-His ligand set revealed by a de novo crystal structural and spectroscopic study

SfmD is a heme-dependent enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of saframycin A. Here, we present a 1.78 Å resolution de novo crystal structure of SfmD, which unveils a novel heme cofactor attached to the protein with an unusual Hx_nHxxxC motif (n ∼ 38). This heme cofactor is unique in two respects. It contains a single thioether bond in a cysteine–vinyl link with Cys317, and the ferric heme has two axial protein ligands, i.e., His274 and His313. We demonstrated that SfmD heme is catalytically active and can utilize dioxygen and ascorbate for a single-oxygen insertion into 3-methyl-l-tyrosine. Catalytic assays using ascorbate derivatives revealed the functional groups of ascorbate essential to its function as a cosubstrate. Abolishing the thioether linkage through mutation of Cys317 resulted in catalytically inactive SfmD variants. EPR and optical data revealed that the heme center undergoes a substantial conformational change with one axial histidine ligand dissociating from the iron ion in response to substrate 3-methyl-l-tyrosine binding or chemical reduction by a reducing agent, such as the cosubstrate ascorbate. The labile axial ligand was identified as His274 through redox-linked structural determinations. Together, identifying an unusual heme cofactor with a previously unknown heme-binding motif for a monooxygenase activity and the structural similarity of SfmD to the members of the heme-based tryptophan dioxygenase superfamily will broaden understanding of heme chemistry.

The de novo crystal structure of SfmD reveals a novel c-type heme cofactor for promoting a monooxygenation reaction in the biosynthetic pathway of saframycin A.     

Scanning Kelvin Microscope: a new method for surface investigations

Based on the well known Kelvin probe for work function measurements a new microstructure analysis system – the Scanning Kelvin Microscope – has been developed. It allows to measure simultaneously with high lateral resolution the distribution of the contact potential difference (CPD) between a conductive sample and a reference probe together with the topographical structure of the sample surface. The measurement is contact free and non-destructive and can be carried out in natural environments. At present the lateral resolution of the measurement approaches 5 m. The results can be displayed on a computer in three dimensional colour pictures.