Dichiral [4.4.3.01,5]tridecane copper(II) cluster derived from a tripodal ligand having unsymmetrical podands and the linker: Synthesis,structure, surface grafting and catalytic aspects

Pseudo‐atranes have a significant role in catalysis; however, obtaining chiral pseudo‐atranes for covalent functionalization of heterogeneous catalytic surfaces is very challenging. Herein, synthesis of a chiral tripodal amine [N{CH (CH₂Ph)CH₂OH}{CH₂(4? Br? C₆H₃OH)}{CH₂(2? CHO? 4? Me? C₆H₂OH)}] ( 1 ) and a dichiral [4.4.3.0^1,5]tridecane copper(II) cluster, that is, (Cu[N{CH (CH₂Ph)CH₂OH}{CH₂(4? Br? C₆H₃O)}{CH₂(2? CHO? 4? Me? C₆H₂O)}])₂ ( 2 ) is described. The compounds are characterized by elemental analyses, Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and single‐crystal X‐ray crystallography (for 2 ). The compound 2 is the first example of chiral pseudo‐copper(II)atrane in which three unsymmetrical arms (two phenolic and a chiral ethanolic arm) are fused via Cu? N transannular bond. The free ? CHO group present in one of the tricyclic arms of the 2 is tested as a linker to load it on 3‐aminopropyltriethoxysilane‐functionalized magnetic nanosilica for catalytic applications. The loading of 2 on magnetic nanosilica through ? CHO was confirmed by FT‐IR spectroscopy, and the 2 ‐loaded magnetic nanosilica ( Fe ₃ O ₄ @SiO ₂ /2 ) was characterized by powder X‐ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometry, scanning electron microscopy, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy and elemental mapping. The Fe ₃ O ₄ @SiO ₂ /2 was found highly efficient, retrievable, eco‐friendly and green catalyst for obtaining β‐amino alcohols in excellent yields in an aqueous medium. Overall, present work is the first report on synthetic, structural and catalytic aspects of dichiral cluster of copper(II)atrane possessing unsymmetrical tricyclic arms.     

Debt and entrenchment: Evidence from Thailand and Indonesia

This paper examines the relation between debt and corporate governance in emerging market economies. We use firm-level panel data of listed companies from Thailand and Indonesia to analyze the firm’s corporate financing behaviors in connection with its corporate governance arrangements. Our results show that the debt structure is linked to the corporate governance. We find that weaker corporate governance firms, in particular measured by the entrenchment effects, tend to have a higher debt level. The evidence is relatively stronger during the crisis period. Our results also shed lights on the importance of the country-specific institutional settings that would affect the empirical results.     

Kinetics and mechanism of oxidation of paracetamol by an Anderson-type 6-molybdocobaltate(III) in acidic medium

Transition Metal Chemistry - Oxidation of paracetamol by the Anderson-type hexamolybdocobaltate(III) anion [H6CoIIIMo6O24]3− was investigated at pH values of 1 and 2 in aqueous medium. The...     

A Phosphoramidite Analogue of Cyclotriphosphate Enables Iterative Polyphosphorylations

An iterative polyphosphorylation approach is described, which is based on a phosphoramidite (P‐amidite) derived reagent (c‐PyPA) obtained from the cyclization of pyrophosphate with a reactive diisopropylaminodichlorophosphine. This type of reagent is unprecedented as it represents a reactive P‐amidite without protecting groups. The reagent proved to be stable in solution over several weeks. Its utility is described in the context of iterative monodirectional and bidirectional polyphosphorylations. The ensuing functionalized cyclotriphosphate can be opened with a variety of nucleophiles providing ready access to diverse functionalized polyphosphate chains of defined length with several tags, including both P‐N and P‐O labels. Their interaction with exo‐ and endopolyphosphatases is described.     

A Review on Obesity Management through Natural Compounds and a Green Nanomedicine-Based Approach

Obesity is a serious health complication in almost every corner of the world. Excessive weight gain results in the onset of several other health issues such as type II diabetes, cancer, respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders (especially osteoarthritis), and cardiovascular diseases. As allopathic medications and derived pharmaceuticals are partially successful in overcoming this health complication, there is an incessant need to develop new alternative anti-obesity strategies with long term efficacy and less side effects. Plants harbor secondary metabolites such as phenolics, flavonoids, terpenoids and other specific compounds that have been shown to have effective anti-obesity properties. Nanoencapsulation of these secondary metabolites enhances the anti-obesity efficacy of these natural compounds due to their speculated property of target specificity and enhanced efficiency. These nanoencapsulated and naive secondary metabolites show anti-obesity properties mainly by inhibiting the lipid and carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes, suppression of adipogenesis and appetite, and enhancing energy metabolism. This review focuses on the plants and their secondary metabolites, along with their nanoencapsulation, that have anti-obesity effects, with their possible acting mechanisms, for better human health.     

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) design for Hg–Se interactions and their effect on reduction of Hg uptake by radish plant

The tendency of selenium to interact with heavy metals in presence of naturally occurring species has been exploited for the development of green bioremediation of toxic metals from soil using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modeling. The cross validation of the data for the reduction in uptake of Hg(II) ions in the plant R. sativus grown in soil and sand culture in presence of selenium has been used for ANN modeling. ANN model based on the combination of back propagation and principal component analysis was able to predict the reduction in Hg uptake with a sigmoid axon transfer function. The data of fifty laboratory experimental sets were used for structuring single layer ANN model. Series of experiments resulted into the performance evaluation based on considering 20% data for testing and 20% data for cross validation at 1,500 Epoch with 0.70 momentums The Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (LMA) was found as the best of BP algorithms with a minimum mean squared error at the eighth place of the decimal for training (MSE) and cross validation.     

Study of Micellar Behavior of SDS and CTAB in Aqueous Media Containing Furosemide—A Cardiovascular Drug

Sound velocity and density measurements of aqueous solutions of the anionic surfactant SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) and the cationic surfactant CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) with the drug furosemide (0.002 and 0.02 mol⋅dm⁻³) have been carried out in the temperature range 20–40 °C. From these measurements, the compressibility coefficient (β), apparent molar volume (φ _v ) and apparent molar compressibility (φ _κ ) have been computed. From electrical conductivity measurements, the critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) of SDS and CTAB has been determined in the above aqueous furosemide solutions. From the CMC values as a function of temperature, various thermodynamic parameters have been evaluated: the standard enthalpy change (DH_m^o\Delta H_{\mathrm{m}}^{\mathrm{o}}), standard entropy change (DS_m^o\Delta S_{\mathrm{m}}^{\mathrm{o}}), and standard Gibbs energy change (DG_m^o\Delta G_{\mathrm{m}}^{\mathrm{o}}) for micellization. This work also included viscosity studies of aqueous solutions of SDS and CTAB with the drug in order to determine the relative viscosity (η _r). UV-Vis studies have also been carried for the ternary drug/surfactant/water system having SDS in the concentration range 0.002–0.014 mol⋅dm⁻³. All of these parameters are discussed in terms of drug–drug, drug–solvent and drug–surfactant interactions resulting from of various electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions.     

The chemical nature of the 2'-substituent in the pentose-sugar dictates the pseudoaromatic character of the nucleobase (pKa) in DNA/RNA

We here show that the pKa (error limit: 0.01 to 0.03 pKa unit) of a nucleobase in a nucleotide can be modulated by the chemical nature of the 2'-substituent at the sugar moiety. This has been evidenced by the measurement of nucleobase pKa in 47 different model nucleoside 3',5'-bis- and 3'-mono-ethylphosphates. The fact that the electronic character of each of the 2'-substituents (Fig. 1) alters the chemical shift of the H2' sugar proton, and also alters the pKa of the nucleobase in the nucleotides has been evidenced by a correlation plot of pKa of N3 of pyrimidine (T/C/U) or pKa of N7 of 9-guaninyl with the corresponding deltaH2' chemical shifts at the neutral pH, which shows linear correlation with high Pearson's correlation coefficients (R = 0.85-0.97). That this modulation of the pKa of the nucleobase by a 2'-substituent is a through-bond as well as through-space effect has been proven by ab initio determined pKa estimation. Interestingly, experimental pKas of nucleobases from NMR titration and the calculated pKas (by ab initio calculations utilizing closed shell HF 6-31G** basis set) are linearly correlated with R = 0.98. It has also been observed that the difference of ground and protonated/de-protonated HOMO orbital energies (DeltaHOMO, a.u.) for the nucleobases (A/G/C/T/U) are well correlated with their pK(a)s in different 2'-substituted 3',5'-bis-ethylphosphate analogs suggesting that only the orbital energy of HOMO can be successfully used to predict the modulation of the chemical reactivity of the nucleobase by the 2'-substituent. It has also been demonstrated that pKa values of nucleobases in 3',5'-bis-ethylphosphates (Table 1) are well correlated with the change in dipole moment for the respective nucleobases after protonation or de-protonation. This work thus unambiguously shows that alteration of the thermodynamic stability (Tm) of the donor-acceptor complexes [ref. 20], as found with various 2'-modified duplexes in the antisense, siRNA or in triplexes by many workers in the field, is a result of alteration of the pseudoaromatic character of the nucleobases engineered by alteration of the chemical nature of the 2'-substitution.     

Synthesis and metal-binding properties of chelating fluorescein derivatives

[reaction: see text] Two routes to highly functionalized metal-chelating fluorescein derivatives have been pursued. Compound 3 is partially quenched by a variety of first-row transition metal ions in aqueous solution, with EC(50) values ranging from 0.4 to 60 microM. Compounds of this type may find application in biological sensing.     

Facile preparation of the oxetane-nucleosides

Efficient and practical large scale synthesis of suitably protected 1',2'-oxetane locked purine and pyrimidine nucleosides for incorporation in oligo-DNA or -RNA by solid-phase synthesis is reported. A high regio and stereoselectivity with preferential formation of the beta-anomer in the glycosylation reaction, using the Vorbrüggen procedure, was achieved by a convergent synthetic procedure with orthogonal protection strategy using either 1,2-di-O-acetyl-3,4-O-isopropylidene-6-O-(4-toluoyl)-d-psicofuranose or 2-O-acetyl-6-O-benzyl-1,3,4-tri-O-(4-toluoyl)-d-psicofuranose as the glycosyl donor.