Total synthesis of (+/-)-rhazinal,an alkaloidal spindle toxin from Kopsia teoi

The title alkaloid 1 and its B-nor-congener 3, both of which display potent and unusual anti-mitotic properties, have been synthesized in racemic form and characterised by single-crystal X-ray analysis.     

The value of two-person zero-sum repeated games with lack of information on both sides

We consider repeated two-person zero-sum games in which each player has only partial information about a chance move that takes place at the beginning of the game. Under some conditions on the information pattern it is proved that \(\mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } v_n\) exists,v _n being the value of the game withn repetitions. Two functional equations are given for which \(\mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } v_n\) is the only simultaneous solutions. We also find the least upper bound for the error term \(\left| {v_n - \mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } v_n } \right|\) .     

Shear Flows of an Ideal Fluid and Elliptic Equations in Unbounded Domains

We prove that, in a two‐dimensional strip, a steady flow of an ideal incompressible fluid with no stationary point and tangential boundary conditions is a shear flow. The same conclusion holds for a bounded steady flow in a half‐plane. The proofs are based on the study of the geometric properties of the streamlines of the flow and on one‐dimensional symmetry results for solutions of some semilinear elliptic equations. Some related rigidity results of independent interest are also shown in n‐dimensional slabs in any dimension n.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Travelling Fronts and Entire Solutions¶of the Fisher-KPP Equation in ℝN

This paper is devoted to time-global solutions of the Fisher-KPP equation in ℝ ^N :

Euler characteristics of the real points of certain varieties of algebraic tori

Let G be a complex connected reductive group which is definedover , let be its Lie algebra, and let be the variety of maximaltori of G. For (), let be the variety of tori in whose Liealgebra is orthogonal to with respect to the Killing form.We show, using the Fourier–Sato transform of conical sheaveson real vector bundles, that the ‘weighted Euler characteristic’of () is zero unless is nilpotent, in which case it equals(–1)^{(dim )/2}. Here ‘weighted Euler characteristic’means the sum of the Euler characteristics of the connectedcomponents, each weighted by a sign ± 1 which dependson the real structure of the tori in the relevant component.This is a real analogue of a result over finite fields whichis connected with the Steinberg representation of a reductivegroup.     

Experimental evidence for a crossover between two distinct mechanisms of amorphization in ice Ih under pressure

We report neutron scattering data which reveal the central role of phonon softening leading to a negative melting line, solid-state amorphization, and negative thermal expansion of ice. We find that pressure-induced amorphization is due to mechanical melting at low temperatures, while at higher temperatures amorphization is governed by thermal melting (violations of Born's and Lindemann's criteria, respectively). This confirms earlier conjectures of a crossover between two distinct amorphization mechanisms and provides a natural explanation for the strong annealing observed in high-density amorphous ice.     

Comparison of topological, shape, and docking methods in virtual screening

Virtual screening benchmarking studies were carried out on 11 targets to evaluate the performance of three commonly used approaches: 2D ligand similarity (Daylight, TOPOSIM), 3D ligand similarity (SQW, ROCS), and protein structure-based docking (FLOG, FRED, Glide). Active and decoy compound sets were assembled from both the MDDR and the Merck compound databases. Averaged over multiple targets, ligand-based methods outperformed docking algorithms. This was true for 3D ligand-based methods only when chemical typing was included. Using mean enrichment factor as a performance metric, Glide appears to be the best docking method among the three with FRED a close second. Results for all virtual screening methods are database dependent and can vary greatly for particular targets.     

Structure Analysis of PVC Nanocomposites

In this paper poly(vinyl chloride)/clay nanocomposites were prepared by melt intercalation using a single screw extruder. Problems with thermal stability of these nanocomposites during compounding were largely eliminated by pre-treatment of the organoclay with plasticizer (dioctyl phthalate), which created a barrier between polymer and quaternary amine. These nanocomposite materials were analyzed with respect to their morphology. The intercalation, exfoliation, nano-phase dispersion and orientation were investigated using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Moreover, different types of sample preparation for these techniques were tested as well. It was found that partially intercalated and disordered structure arose in poly (vinyl chloride) composites containing sodium type of montmorillonite, while a fine dispersion of partial to nearly full exfoliation of individual montmorillonite layers in poly (vinyl chloride) matrix was observed when this clay was organically modified. Finally, the influence of different mixing time (in extruder) on nano-phase morphology was surveyed.