Suffruyabiosides A and B, two new monoterpene diglycosides from moutan cortex

Two new monoterpene diglycosides, suffruyabiosides A and B, and seven known compounds 3-9 were isolated from Moutan Cortex (root cortex of Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews). The structures were elucidated on the basis of 2D NMR spectral data. Suffruyabiosides A and B are rare monoterpene diglycosides, including a cellobiose in the molecules. Salicylpaeoniflorin (4) had a antiproliferation effect similar to paeoniflorin (3) on human lung adenocarcinoma epitherial A549 cells. Galloylpaeoniflorin (8) and salicylpaeoniflorin (4) revealed a more pronounced radical scavenging effect than a-tocopherol (positive control). An increase in the number of phenolic hydroxyl groups produced a more effective radical scavenging effect [8 > mudanpioside E (6) > oxypaeoniflorin (5)]. Comparison of the effects of 4 and 5 showed that o-substitution with a phenolic hydroxyl group was more effective than p-substitution. The results suggest that salicylpaeoniflorin (4) may be useful as a cytotoxic and a radical scavenging agent.     

Upper Bounds on the Paired Domination Subdivision Number of a Graph

A paired dominating set of a graph G with no isolated vertex is a dominating set S of vertices such that the subgraph induced by S in G has a perfect matching. The paired domination number of G, denoted by γ _pr(G), is the minimum cardinality of a paired dominating set of G. The paired domination subdivision number ${{\rm sd}_{\gamma _{\rm pr}}(G)}$ is the minimum number of edges to be subdivided (each edge of G can be subdivided at most once) in order to increase the paired domination number. In this paper, we show that if G is a connected graph of order at least 4, then ${{\rm sd}_{\gamma _{\rm pr}}(G)\leq 2|V(G)|-5}$ . We also characterize trees T such that ${{\rm sd}_{\gamma _{\rm pr}}(T) \geq |V(T)| /2}$ .     

Electron spin resonance shift in spin ladder compounds

We analyze the effects of different coupling anisotropies in a spin-1/2 ladder on the electron spin resonance (ESR) shift. Combining a perturbative expression in the anisotropies with density matrix renormalization group computation of the short range correlations at finite temperature, we provide the full temperature and magnetic field evolution of the ESR paramagnetic shift. We show that for well chosen parameters the ESR shift can be in principle used to extract quantitatively the anisotropies and, as an example, discuss the material BPCB.     

Radical-mediated stannylation of vinyl sulfones: access to novel 4′-modified neplanocin A analogues

Synthesis of 4′-substituted (halogeno, phenyl, ethynyl, and cyano) neplanocin A analogues was carried out. A cyclopentenol derivative having a vinylstannane structure was designed as key-intermediate in this study, which was prepared based on radical-mediated sulfur-extrusive stannylation. The resulting stannylated cyclopentenol 15 was successfully condensed with 6-chloropurine through the Mitsunobu reaction, leading to the carbocyclic nucleoside 20. Compound 20 was converted to its adenine counterpart 21 by treatment with NH₃/MeOH, during which the 4′-stannyl group remained intact. The title compounds were prepared by using 21 or the 4′-iodo derivative (22) mostly through the Stille reaction.     

Synthesis and properties of novel extended BODIPYs with rigid skeletons

Novel extended BODIPYs fused with bicyclo rings were synthesized from bicyclopyrroles by combining Knoevenagel condensation, Suzuki coupling, and O-chelation. The absorption maxima of the BODIPYs ranged from the visible to near-infrared region and the compounds showed good solubility in organic solvents. The solubility of the bicycloBODIPY with 2-naphthyl groups at the α-position of the pyrrole units was particularly high. Heating converted distyrylBODIPY with bicyclo[2.2.2]octene to benzoBODIPY with absorption (748.5?nm) and fluorescence (775.0?nm) in the near-infrared region.     

Effects of added surfactants on thermoreversible gelation of associating polymer solutions

The influence of added surfactants on physical properties of associating polymer solutions was examined by a new statistical‐mechanical theory of associating polymer solutions with multiple junctions and by computer simulation. The sol–gel transition line, the spinodal line, and the number of elastically effective chains in the mixed networks were calculated as functions of the concentration of added surfactants. All of them exhibited nonmonotonic behavior as a result of the following two competing mechanisms. One was the formation of new mixed micelles by binding surfactants onto the polymer associative groups. These micelles serve as crosslink junctions and promote gelation. The other was the replacement of polymer associative groups in the already formed network junctions by added surfactants. Such replacement lowers connectivity of junctions and destroys networks. The critical micelle concentration was also calculated. The results are compared with the reported experimental data on poly(ethylene oxide)‐based associating polymers and hydrophobically modified cellulose derivatives. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 733–751, 2004     

On Exponential Sums Involving the Ideal Counting Function in Quadratic Number Fields

 Let χ be a Dirichlet character modulo k > 1, and F _χ(n) the arithmetical function which is generated by the product of the Riemann zeta-function and the Dirichlet L-function corresponding to χ in . In this paper we study the asymptotic behaviour of the exponential sums involving the arithmetical function F _χ(n). In particular, we study summation formulas for these exponential sums and mean square formulas for the error term. Received April 17, 2001; in revised form April 2, 2002     

Morphology of ABC triblock copolymer/homopolymer blend systems

Morphological variations of ABC triblock copolymers through the blending of B or A/C homopolymers, all with short chain lengths, were studied experimentally. The samples were symmetric ISP triblock copolymers, where I, S, and P denote polyisoprene, polystyrene, and poly(2‐vinylpyridine), and component homopolymers. Microphase‐separated structures of the solvent‐cast films were observed with transmission electron microscopy and small‐angle X‐ray scattering. For an ISP/S system, the lattice constant of the tricontinuous gyroid structure (G‐structure) increased with an increase in the volume fraction of S (?_s) if the amount of added homopolymer was small, but it reached a certain limit, reflecting the fact that the midblock chain had a limit for chain stretching. For I/ISP/P blends, on the contrary, the lattice constant of the G‐structure continued increasing with decreasing ?_s. This result shows that the I and P domains did not have a limit for chain stretching because the two end blocks had free ends. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 1135–1141, 2002