The microwave spectrum of MnO3F

The microwave spectrum of MnO₃F has been remeasured and several corrections and new results have been obtained: B₀ = 4129.141 MHz, D_J = 1.12 kHz, D_JK = 1.87 kHz; $\text{α}{}_3{}^{\mathrm{B}}\text{= 8.622}$, $\text{α}{}_5{}^{\mathrm{B}}\text{= ? 11.994}$, $\text{α}{}_6{}^{\mathrm{B}}\text{= 6.042}$, |q₅| = 16.005, and |q₆| = 8.456 MHz.     

On Idempotent-generated Subsemigroups of Principally Ordered Regular Semigroups

Here we consider, in a principally ordered regular semigroup in which the operation $x \mapsto x*$ is weakly isotone, the structure of the *-subsemigroup that is generated by a pair of comparable idempotents.     

Effect of Denaturating Agents on the Structural Alterations and Drug-Binding Capacity of Human and Bovine Serum Albumin

Sulindac (SDC) is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, useful in the treatment of chronic and acute inflammatory conditions. The binding of SDC to human serum albumin and bovine serum albumin was studied by fluorescence spectroscopy and the results compared with those obtained for human and bovine serum albumin destabilized with urea and guanidine hydrochloride. SDC interacts with serum albumin within the hydrophobic subdomain IIA and/or IB. The analysis of the binding constants shows that the studied albumins preserve their binding capacity in the presence of destabilizing/denaturating agents. The denaturation coefficient has been calculated to estimate the degree of denaturation of protein.     

Reactions of Nucleophiles with Nitroarenes: Multifacial and Versatile Electrophiles

In this overview, it is shown that there are many initial reactions between nitroarenes and nucleophiles: addition to the electron‐deficient ring at positions occupied by halogen and hydrogen atoms, addition to the nitro group, single‐electron transfer (SET), and other types of initial reactions. The resulting intermediates react further in a variety of ways to form products of nucleophilic substitution of a halogen atom (S_NAr), a hydrogen atom (S_NArH), and others. Many variants of these processes are briefly discussed, particularly in relation of rates of the initial reactions and further transformations.     

Ground- and excited-state properties of inorganic solids from full-potential density-functional calculations

The development in theoretical condensed-matter science based on density-functional theory (DFT) has reached a level where it is possible, from “parameter-free” quantum mechanical calculations to obtain total energies, forces, vibrational frequencies, magnetic moments, mechanical and optical properties and so forth. The calculation of such properties are important in the analyses of experimental data and they can be predicted with a precision that is sufficient for comparison with experiments. It is almost impossible to do justice to all developments achieved by DFT because of its rapid growth. Hence, it has here been focused on a few advances, primarily from our laboratory. Unusual bonding behaviors in complex materials are conveniently explored using the combination of charge density, charge transfer, and electron-localization function along with crystal-orbital Hamilton-population analyses. It is indicated that the elastic properties of materials can reliably be predicted from DFT calculations if one takes into account the structural relaxations along with gradient corrections in the calculations. Experimental techniques have their limitations in studies of the structural stability and pressure-induced structural transitions in hydride materials whereas the present theoretical approach can be applied to reliably predict properties under extreme pressures. From the spin-polarized, relativistic full-potential calculations one can study novel materials such as ruthenates, quasi-one-dimensional oxides, and spin-, charge-, and orbital-ordering in magnetic perovskite-like oxides. The importance of orbital-polarization correction to the DFT to predict the magnetic anisotropy in transition-metal compounds and magnetic moments in lanthanides and actinides are emphasized. Apart from the full-potential treatment, proper magnetic ordering as well as structural distortions have to be taken into account to predict correctly the insulating behavior of transition-metal oxides. The computational variants LDA and GGA fail to predict insulating behavior of Mott insulators whereas electronic structures can be described correctly when correlation effects are taken into account through LDA+U or similar approaches to explain their electronic structures correctly. Excited-state properties such as linear optical properties, magneto-optical properties, XANES, XPS, UPS, BIS, and Raman spectra can be obtained from accurate DFT calculations.     

Synthesis and Biological Activity of Ferrocenyl and Ruthenocenyl Analogues of Etoposide: Discovery of a Novel Dual Inhibitor of Topoisomerase II Activity and Tubulin Polymerization

Two series of the ferrocenyl and ruthenocenyl analogues of etoposide bearing 1,2,3-triazolyl or aminoalkyl linker were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic properties, influence on the cell cycle, ability to induce tubulin polymerization, and inhibition of topoisomerase II activity. We found that the replacement of the etoposide carbohydrate moiety with a metallocenyl group led to organometallic conjugates exhibiting differentiated antiproliferative activity. Biological studies demonstrated that two ferrocenylalkylamino conjugates were notably more active than etoposide, with submicromolar or low-micromolar IC₅₀ values towards SW620, etoposide-resistant SW620E, and methotrexate-resistant SW620M cancer cell lines. Moreover, the simplest ferrocenylmethylamino conjugate exerted dual inhibitory action against tubulin polymerization and topoisomerase II activity while other studied compounds affected only topoisomerase II activity.     

Regioselective Short Synthesis of Epiisoborneol Neopentyl Ether as Chiral Auxiliary: An Absolute Configuration Reset

The regio-selective four step synthesis of (1S,2R,3S,4R)-4,7,7-trimethyl-3-(neopentyloxy)bicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-ol, as recognized efficient chiral auxiliary, is presented. The strategy based on opening of the key acetal 15 (=(2S,3aR,4S,7R,7aS)-2-tert-butyl-4,8,8-trimethylhexahydro-2H-4,7-methano-1,3-benzodioxole) thus circumvents the poor reactivity of the neopentyl electrophile under alkylation conditions. Following the same strategy, but using the unreported acetal 22 (=(2R,3aS,4S,7R,7aR)-2-tert-butyl-4,8,8-trimethylhexahydro-2H-4,7-methano-1,3-benzodioxole), the corresponding unreported bis-endo alcohol 23 (=(1R,2R,3S,4S)-3-(2,2-dimethylpropoxy)-4,7,7-trimethylbicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-ol) could be isolated only in poor yield. An alternative regioselective synthesis, including an ultimate endo-reduction remains to be found. Several erroneous chiroptical properties from the literature are corrected.