Towards novel difluorinated sugar mimetics; syntheses and conformational analyses of highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclooctenones

Highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclooctenones were synthesised from trifluoroethanol using either metallated difluoroenol acetal or carbamate chemistry, followed by a [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement or aldol reaction. Efficient RCM reactions afforded the title compounds which showed rather restricted fluxional behaviour by VT (19)F NMR. Topological characterisation by molecular modelling and NOESY/ROESY experiments offered a number of challenges, but allowed the identification of two favoured boat-chair conformers which interconverted by pseudorotation with relatively large activation barriers.     

Acylation of hydrazides with acetic acid and formic acid

In peptide synthesis, hydrazides are important intermediates for the azide coupling method. A hydrazide is converted to the corresponding azide in the presence of an acid and a nitrite. When acetic acid (or formic acid) is used as the acid, partial acetylation (or formylation) of the hydrazide occurs as a side reaction. Formylation of the hydrazide is much faster than acetylation. Removal of the formyl group on the hydrazide with hydrazine and hydroxylamine was studied. The rate of deformylation with hydrazine treatment is faster than that with hydroxylamine treatment.     

Structure and magnetism of a new pyrazolate bridged iron(II) spin crossover complex displaying a single HS-HS to LS-LS transition

The dinuclear iron(II) complex [(pypzH)(NCSe)Fe([micro sign]-pypz)(2)Fe(NCSe)(pypzH)].2H(2)O displays a single, sharp spin crossover transition between the [HS-HS] and [LS-LS] states and is structurally characterised above and below the T(1/2)= 225 K value     

Potentiometric titration of hydrogen peroxide with an electropolished stainless steel electrode

The preparation and use of a stainless steel indicator electrode in the accurate potentiometric titration of aqueous hydrogen peroxide are described. The results agree excellently with those obtained by a standard colorimetric weight-titration procedure. The nature of the titration curves, potential changes and the factors affecting them are discussed. Rapid potentiometric titrations directly to the equivalence-point potential are possible, owing to the nature of the titration curve.     

Comparison of the structural and chemical composition of giant T-even phage heads.

A study has been made of the structure of the capsids of T4D giant phage produced from mutants in gene 23 and temperature-sensitive mutants in gene 24, and T4D and T2L giant phage formed by the addition of L-canavanine followed by an Larginine chase in the growth medium. All the giant phage capsids have been shown to be built according to the same geometrical architecture. This consists of a near-hexagonal surface net, lattice constant 129.5 A, folded into a left-handed T = 13 prolate icosahedron elongated along one of its fivefold symmetry axes. Their only apparent difference from wild-type T-even phage capsids is their abnormally elongated tubular part. A comparison of the capsomere morphologies and protein compositions of the giant phage capsids showed that all T4D giants are identical but differ from T2L: The T4D capsomere has a complex (6 + 6 + 1)-type morphology, whereas the T2L has a simple 6-type. T2L phage, however, lack two capsid proteins, "soc" and "hoc", present in T4D. The difference in capsomere morphology can therefore be related to the difference in the protein compositions of these two phage. Possible differences between the initiation and means of length regulation of giant phage heads and the aberrant polyheads are discussed.     

Optimization of the design and operation of FAIMS analyzers

Field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) holds significant promise for post-ionization separations in conjunction with mass-spectrometric analyses. However, a limited understanding of fundamentals of FAIMS analyzers has made their design and operation largely an empirical exercise. Recently, we developed an a priori simulation of FAIMS that accounts for both ion diffusion (including anisotropic components) and Coulomb repulsion, and validated it by extensive comparisons with FAIMS/MS data. Here it is corroborated further by FAIMS-only measurements, and applied to explore how key instrumental parameters (analytical gap width and length, waveform frequency and profile, the identity and flow speed of buffer gas) affect FAIMS response. We find that the trade-off between resolution and sensitivity can be managed by varying gap width, RF frequency, and (in certain cases) buffer gas, with equivalent outcome. In particular, the resolving power can be approximately doubled compared to "typical" conditions. Throughput may be increased by either accelerating the gas flow (preferable) or shortening the device, but below certain minimum residence times performance deteriorates. Bisinusoidal and clipped-sinusoidal waveforms have comparable merit, but switching to rectangular waveforms would improve resolution and/or sensitivity. For any waveform profile, the ratio of two between voltages in high and low portions of the cycle produces the best performance.     

Retrieving definitional content for ontology development

Ontology construction requires an understanding of the meaning and usage of its encoded concepts. While definitions found in dictionaries or glossaries may be adequate for many concepts, the actual usage in expert writing could be a better source of information for many others. The goal of this paper is to describe an automated procedure for finding definitional content in expert writing. The approach uses machine learning on phrasal features to learn when sentences in a book contain definitional content, as determined by their similarity to glossary definitions provided in the same book. The end result is not a concise definition of a given concept, but for each sentence, a predicted probability that it contains information relevant to a definition. The approach is evaluated automatically for terms with explicit definitions, and manually for terms with no available definition.     

Vinylsulfonylethyl derivatives of nucleic acid bases and their graft polymers on polyethyleneimine

Vinylsulfonylethyl (VSE) derivatives of the nucleic acid bases adenine, thymine, cytosine, and the nucleosides inosine and uridine have been prepared via a simple Michael reaction with divinyl sulfone. The VSE derivatives were grafted on a polyethyleneimine (PEI) backbone. PEI of different molecular weights (1400, 1800 and 50,000–100,000) were used and also two different molar ratios (1:1 and 1:2) of monomer to PEI were employed. From the ¹H-NMR and elemental analysis, it appeared that in almost all instances the grafting was quantitative. In one case, both 1-VSE-thymine and 9-VSE-adenine were grafted on the same PEI backbone. Interactions between some of these polymers were investigated by UV spectroscopy. The expected complementary base pairing was observed only in DMSO–ethylene glycol solvent system but not in DMSO. The adenine polymer showed a one-to-one interaction with the thymine polymer.     

Cyclophosphamides from aminosugars and aminonucleosides

Condensation of bis-(2-chloroethyl)phosphoramidic dichloride with 3′-amino-3′-deoxy-N,N-dimethyladenosine afforded the 2′,3′-cyclicphosphorodiamidate (III). By an improved synthesis, methyl 3-amino-3-deoxy-β-D-ribofuranoside was obtained as a model compound for conversion to the analogous 2,3-cyclicphosphorodiamidate (XII). Existence of the latter as two diastereomers due to phosphorus asymmetry was shown by nmr analysis, using comparison with the 5-(O-p-nitrobenzoate) (XIII) as a basis for assignments.     

Asymmetric epoxidation using a singly-bound supported Katsuki-type (salen)Mn complex

We have successfully prepared an unsymmetrical analogue of a Katsuki-type salen ligand having a single hydroxyalkyl group at its 6-position, and also its Mn(III) complex; attachment of the complex to a polymer gives a highly enantioselective and recoverable catalyst for epoxidation of 1,2-dihydronaphthalene.