Intramolecular cycloaddition reactions of exocyclic nitrones: Application in the total synthesis of terpenes

Exocyclic nitrones smoothly participate in intramolecular cycloaddition reactions to provide bridged and fused polycarbocycles. The exploitation of this methodology in the total syntheses of the sesquiterpenes (±)-7,12-secoishwaran-12-ol (44), (±)-hirsutene (56), (±)-coriolin (68) is also presented.     

Compact Ovoids in Quadrangles III: Clifford Algebras and Isoparametric Hypersurfaces

In this third part, we consider those compact quadrangles which arise from isoparametric hypersurfaces of Clifford type and their focal manifolds. Sections 9–11 give a comprehensive introduction to these quadrangles from the incidence-geometric point of view. Section 10 contains also a new (algebraic) proof that these geometries are quadrangles.We determine which of these quadrangles have ovoids or spreads and also whether the normal sphere bundles of the focal manifolds admit sections, or whether they are topologically trivial. We give explicit geometric constructions for spreads, ovoids, and sections.     

Compact Ovoids in Quadrangles II: the Classical Quadrangles

In this second part we consider ovoids in the classical compact connected quadrangles. We solve the problem whether closed ovoids or spreads exist in these quadrangles. In fact we prove a slightly more general result: we determine whether the normal sphere bundles of the point- or line space admit sections, or whether they are topologically trivial. We also give explicit geometric constructions for spreads and ovoids. Some of these spreads are apparently new.     

Efficient identification of inhibitors targeting the closed active site conformation of the HPRT from Trypanosoma cruzi

Background: Currently, only two drugs are recommended for treatment of infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas’ disease. These compounds kill the trypomastigote forms of the parasite circulating in the bloodstream, but are relatively ineffective against the intracellular stage of the parasite life cycle. Neither drug is approved by the FDA for use in the US. The hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) from T. cruzi is a possible new target for antiparasite chemotherapy. The crystal structure of the HPRT in a conformation approximating the transition state reveals a closed active site that provides a well-defined target for computational structure-based drug discovery.Results: A flexible ligand docking program incorporating a desolvation correction was used to screen the Available Chemicals Directory for inhibitors targeted to the closed conformation of the trypanosomal HPRT. Of 22 potential inhibitors identified, acquired and tested, 16 yielded K_i’s between 0.5 and 17 μM versus the substrate phosphoribosylpyrophosphate. Surprisingly, three of eight compounds tested were effective in inhibiting the growth of parasites in infected mammalian cells.Conclusions: This structure-based docking method provided a remarkably efficient path for the identification of inhibitors targeting the closed conformation of the trypanosomal HPRT. The inhibition constants of the lead inhibitors identified are unusually favorable, and the trypanostatic activity of three of the compounds in cell culture suggests that they may provide useful starting points for drug design for the treatment of Chagas’ disease.     

The structure and oscillational motion of 57Fe atoms in interstitial sites in Al as determined from interference of Mössbauer γ radiation

The first excited site of the ⁵⁷Fe atom entrapped in an interstitial site in aluminum, as reported by W. Petry, G. Vogl, and W. Mansel (Phys. Rev. Lett.45, 1862 (1980)). from a Mössbauer spectroscopic study of a single crystal, is analyzed by consideration of the value of the Hooke's law constant of the FeAl bonds obtained from the values for elemental Fe and Al. The eight wavefunctions for the eightfold nearly degenerate excited state are described as 2s1p1d1f hybrids of three-dimensional harmonic oscillator wavefunctions relative to the center of the undistorted Al₆ octahedron or as localized 1s functions relative to the center of the distorted octahedron. These considerations provide a qualitative understanding of the observations on this system.     

Compact Ovoids in Quadrangles I: Geometric Constructions

This paper is about ovoids in infinite generalized quadrangles. Using the axiom of choice, Cameron showed that infinite quadrangles contain many ovoids. Therefore, we consider mainly closed ovoids in compact quadrangles. After deriving some basic properties of compact ovoids, we consider ovoids which arise from full imbeddings. This leads to restrictions for the topological parameters (m,m). For example, if there is a regular pair of lines or a full closed subquadrangle, then mm. The existence of full subquadrangles implies the nonexistence of ideal subquadrangles, so finite-dimensional quadrangles are either point-minimal or line-minimal. Another result is that (up to duality) such a quadrangle is spanned by the set of points on an ordinary quadrangle. This is useful for studying orbits of automorphism groups. Finally we prove general nonexistence results for ovoids in quadrangles with low-dimensional line pencils. As one consequence we show that the symplectic quadrangle over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 has no Zariski-closed ovoids or spreads.     

Focused sound from three-dimensional sound propagation effects over a submarine canyon

Ship noise data reveal an intensification of the near-surface sound field over a submarine canyon. Numerical modeling of sound propagation is used to study the effect. The noise data were collected during an ocean acoustic and physical oceanography experiment northeast of Taiwan in 2009. In situ measurements of water sound-speed profiles and a database of high-resolution bathymetry are used in the modeling study. The model results suggest that the intensification is caused by three-dimensional sound focusing by the concave canyon seafloor. Uncertainties in the model results from unsampled aspects of the environment are discussed.     

A hybrid weakly nonconforming discretization for linear elasticity

We introduce a hybridizable discretization for problems of linear elasticity, based on a flexible weak coupling of the displacement and the normal stress across the inner element boundaries. The dual variables of the Lagrange multiplier are introduced as hybrid trace variables. A reduction of the equation system to these variables allows for an efficient parallel implementation. The performance of an adaptive choice of the hybrid degrees of freedom is demonstrated by a numerical example with a corner singularity. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)