New stereoselective synthesis of the peptidic aminopeptidase inhibitors bestatin, phebestin and probestin

Peptidic aminopeptidase inhibitors, bestatin, phebestin and probestin have been prepared by stereo- and regiocontrolled reactions from a common α,β-epoxy ester precursor.     

Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution in Au–Fe Nanoalloys

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the most critical step in water splitting, still limiting the development of efficient alkaline water electrolyzers. Here we investigate the OER activity of Au–Fe nanoalloys obtained by laser-ablation synthesis in solution. This method allows a high amount of iron (up to 11 at %) to be incorporated into the gold lattice, which is not possible in Au–Fe alloys synthesized by other routes, due to thermodynamic constraints. The Au_0.89Fe_0.11 nanoalloys exhibit strongly enhanced OER in comparison to the individual pure metal nanoparticles, lowering the onset of OER and increasing up to 20 times the current density in alkaline aqueous solutions. Such a remarkable electrocatalytic activity is associated to nanoalloying, as demonstrated by comparative examples with physical mixtures of gold and iron nanoparticles. These results open attractive scenarios to the use of kinetically stable nanoalloys for catalysis and energy conversion.     

Synthesis and structure of a dithioether-substituted butene-2-olide-4-ylidene-4 cobalt carbonyl complex

The complex (1) has been prepared and its structure determined. Complex1 is the first stable thioether derivative of a metal carbonyl containing only cobalt as metal. It crystallizes in the monoclinic P2₁/c space group, witha = 13.975( 4 ),b = 11.363( 3 ),c = 14.686(2)A, = 112.25(2)°,V = 2158.5(7)A³.Z = 4. The solution using direct methods and the anisotropic refinement of all nonhydrogen atoms led toR = 0.039,wR = 0.041 for 3296 reflections with F> 4.0(F) Analogous but less stable complexes are formed with 1,6-diphenyl-2,5-dithiahexane and the crown thioether 1,4,7-trithiacyclonane, the latter functioning either as a bidenlate or a tridentate ligand.     

Dipeptides containing D-serine or D-isoserine from the same (R)-aziridine-2-imide by a simple reversal of the synthetic procedure

The ring expansion of 3-unsubstituted (R)-aziridine-2-imide-containing dipeptide under acidic conditions gives rise to oxazoline-5-imide regio and stereoselectively, which can be hydrolysed to the dipeptide containing D-isoserine. On the other hand, the ring opening of 3-unsubstituted (R)-aziridine-2-ester dipeptide, easily obtained from the same (R)-aziridine, gives the regioisomeric dipeptide containing D-serine.     

1,2,3-Triazolo[4,5-e]-1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-c]pyrimidines

Some new 1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-e]-1,2,4-triazolo[3, 4 -c]pyrimidmes were prepared starting from the corresponding 1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines via the formation of the 1,2,4-triazole ring. Thus suitable hydrazino derivatives 6 were condensed with triethyl orthoformate, triethyl orthoacetate and triethyl orthobenzoate to give the expected tricyclic derivatives 7 , 8 and 9 . Intramolecular cyclization of the ethoxycarbonylhydrazino derivatives 10 gave the tricyclic compounds 11 bearing an hydroxyl group in the 3 position. The v-triazolo-s-triazolopyrimidine derivatives were tested towards the A₁ and A_2A adenosine receptors in binding assays, but they did not show any receptor affinity.     

Synthesis of potential HIV integrase inhibitors inspired by natural polyphenol structures

Drawing inspiration from the structural features of some natural polyphenols, the synthesis of two different model compounds as potential inhibitors of HIV integrase (IN) has been described. The former was characterised by a diketo acid (DKA) bioisostere, such as a β-hydroxycarbonyl moiety, between two fragments containing aromatic groups, while in the latter an epoxide linked two polyoxygenated aromatic residues. The moieties present in the structures are thought to function by chelating divalent metal ions on the enzyme catalytic site. Overall, 10 compounds were prepared and some of that submitted to molecular modelling studies (to investigate their interactions with the active site of IN), to metal titration studies (to detect their chelating capability) and to biological assays.     

Application of thermal analysis to the rhenium recovery process from copper and molybdenum sulphides minerals

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Rhenium production from copper and molybdenum sulphides involves the use of a pyrometallurgical process. In traditional pyrometallurgy processes, gases...     

Sui probleimi ellittici non lineari con coefficienti crescenti «rapidamente» o «lentamente»

Summary We study boundary value problems in variational form for nonlinear elliptic operators in the case the nonlinearity is not of polynomial type. We give some examples of applications of abstract theorems for homogeneous problems obtained by other authors (e.g. Donaldson, Grossez) to homogeneous «intermediate» and «mixed» problems. Furthermore we prove some existence theorems for non homogeneous problems.

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Lavoro eseguito nell'ambito del G.N.A.F.A. del C.N.R.     

A method for predicting the stability characteristics of three-term homogeneous recurrence relations

A simple method is presented which determines the numerical stability or instability in the computation of any solution of a three-term homogeneous linear difference equation of order m in terms of the size of a single parameter. The method is illustrated by application to a second order and to a third order difference equation. Excellent agreement with predictions is reported.