Solvent‐Free Ring‐Opening Metathesis Polymerization of Norbornene over Silica‐Supported Tungsten–Oxo Perhydrocarbyl Catalysts

Ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of bicyclo[2.2.1]hept‐2‐ene (norbornene) is carried out over silica‐supported catalysts based on tungsten complexes bearing an oxo ligand ( 1 : [(SiO)W(O)(CH₂SiMe₃)₃, 2 : [(SiO)W(O)(CHCMe₂Ph)(dAdPO)], dAdPO  2,6 diadamantyl‐4‐methylphenoxide, 3 : [(SiO)₂W(O)(CH₂SiMe₃)₂]). The evaluation of the catalytic activities of the aforementioned materials in ROMP indicates that at low reaction time (0.5 min), the highest polymer yield is obtained with catalyst 2 . However, for longer reaction time (>2 min), complex 3 , a model of the industrial catalyst, exhibits a better monomer conversion. The polymers obtained are characterized. Moreover, these catalysts are shown to be rather preferentially selective to give the cis polynorbornene (>65%), characterized by high melting points (≈300 °C). The experimental values of the average molecular weight (M_n) of polynorbornenes are found to be close to the theoretical ones for the polymers prepared using catalyst 2 and higher for those originated from catalyst 3 .

     

Fecal Metabolic Profiling of Breast Cancer Patients during Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Reveals Potential Biomarkers

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common form of cancer among women worldwide. Despite the huge advancements in its treatment, the exact etiology of breast cancer still remains unresolved. There is an increasing interest in the role of the gut microbiome in modulating the anti-cancer therapeutic response. It seems that alteration of the microbiome-derived metabolome potentially promotes carcinogenesis. Taken together, metabolomics has arisen as a fascinating new omics field to screen promising metabolic biomarkers. In this study, fecal metabolite profiling was performed using NMR spectroscopy, to identify potential biomarker candidates that can predict response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer. Metabolic profiles of feces from patients (n = 8) following chemotherapy treatment cycles were studied. Interestingly, amino acids were found to be upregulated, while lactate and fumaric acid were downregulated in patients under the second and third cycles compared with patients before treatment. Furthermore, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were significantly differentiated between the studied groups. These results strongly suggest that chemotherapy treatment plays a key role in modulating the fecal metabolomic profile of BC patients. In conclusion, we demonstrate the feasibility of identifying specific fecal metabolic profiles reflecting biochemical changes that occur during the chemotherapy treatment. These data give an interesting insight that may complement and improve clinical tools for BC monitoring.     

General decay and blow up of solution for a nonlinear wave equation with a fractional boundary damping

The paper deals with the study of global existence of solutions and the general decay in a bounded domain for nonlinear wave equation with fractional derivative boundary condition by using the Lyaponov functional. Furthermore, the blow up of solutions with nonpositive initial energy combined with a positive initial energy is established.     

Semi-empirical correlation of solid solute solubility in supercritical carbon dioxide: Comparative study and proposition of a novel density-based model

A comprehensive data set on experimental solubility of 210 solid solutes in supercritical CO₂ counting 5550 data points has been used for comparison of the correlation performance of 21 empirical models. On the basis of the comparison results a new eight-parameter density-based model has been proposed. The comparison shows that the three-parameter models are the least accurate. The results also show that models that relate the logarithm of the solubility to the logarithm of solvent density and temperature are more accurate than models that include the pressure. When comparing the overall correlating performance in terms of average absolute relative deviation the proposed model is by far the best with an average absolute relative deviation lying in the range 0.17–81.99% and an average value of 8.88%.     

Influence of Zn/Co ratio on dielectric behavior of Na<Subscript>2</Subscript>Zn<Subscript>1 ‐ x</Subscript>Co<Subscript>x</Subscript>P<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>7</Subscript> glasses

A series of zinc phosphate glass doped with cobalt Na₂Zn_(1???x)Co_xP₂O₇ (x = 0, 1, 2 and 5 mol%) was synthesized. These glasses were characterized by both infrared and large broadband dielectric spectroscopy. Infrared spectra indicate the increase of Zn/Co ratio creates defect in phosphate network due to the depolymeration of phosphate anions. The dc conductivity increases and activation energy decreases with the amount of cobalt ions in the glass network. The impedance measurements reveal that the total conductivity follows Jonscher’s power law. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss increased with the temperature and decreased with the frequency whatever the cobalt proportion.     

Chemical composition,antioxidant and antibacterial properties of Pteranthus dichotomus from Algerian Sahara

The phytochemical study of ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts of Pteranthus dichotomus Forssk. led to the isolation and identification of 11 compounds, including three glycolipids 1–3, one lignan 4, three flavonoids 5–7 and four phytosterols 8–11. Structures of the isolated compounds have been elucidated by analysis of 1D and 2D NMR data, and mass spectrometry EI-MS and ESI-MS and by comparison with literature data. Furthermore, the ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts were examined for their antioxidant and antibacterial activities. The results showed that both extracts (PDAC and PDBU) had a moderate antioxidant activity (IC50 = 375.514 μg/mL and 691.333 μg/mL) respectively.     

Bis(4‐methylbenzylammonium) tetrachloridozincate: a new noncentrosymmetric structure characterized by 13C CP–MAS NMR spectroscopy

A new noncentrosymmetric organic–inorganic hybrid material, (C₈H₁₂N)₂[ZnCl₄], has been synthesized as single crystals at room temperature and characterized by X‐ray diffraction and solid‐state NMR spectroscopy. Its novel structure consists of two 4‐methylbenzylammonium cations and one [ZnCl₄]²⁻ anion connected by N—H...Cl and C—H...Cl hydrogen bonds, two of which are three‐centre interactions. The Zn^II metal centre has a slightly distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry. Results from ¹³C CP–MAS NMR spectroscopy are in good agreement with the X‐ray structure. Density functional theory calculations allow the assignment of the carbon peaks to the independent crystallographic sites.     

Synthesis,structural elucidation,characterization and theoretical DFT study of 1‐(o‐tolyl)biguanidium chloride

The structure of the new salt 1‐(o‐tolyl)biguanidium chloride, C₉H₁₄N₅⁺·Cl^?, has been determined by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction. The salt crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/c. In this structure, the chloride and biguanidium hydrophilic ions are mostly connected to each other via N—H…N and N—H…Cl hydrogen bonds to form layers parallel to the ab plane around y = and y = . The 2‐methylbenzyl groups form layers between these layers around y = 0 and y = , with the methyl group forming C—H…π interactions with the aromatic ring. Intermolecular interactions on the Hirshfeld surface were investigated in terms of contact enrichment and electrostatic energy, and confirm the role of strong hydrogen bonds along with hydrophobic interactions. A correlation between electrostatic energy and contact enrichment is found only for the strongly attractive (N—H…Cl^?) and repulsive contacts. Electrostatic energies between ions reveal that the interacting biguanidium cation pairs are repulsive and that the crystal is maintained by attractive cation…Cl^? dimers. The vibrational absorption bands were identified by IR spectroscopy.     

Total assignment of the 1H and 13C NMR spectra of benzo[f][1]benzothieno[2,3-c]quinoline by inverse-detected two-dimensional NMR techniques

The proton and carbon nmr spectra of benzo[f][1]benzothieno[2,3-c]quinoline have been totally assigned using a combination of 2D nmr methods including concerted use of HMQC (heteronuclear multiple quantum correlation) and HMBC (heteronuclear multiple bond correlation) experiments.