Physicochemical characterization of phosphinic pseudopeptides by capillary zone electrophoresis in highly acidic background electrolytes

Phosphinic pseudopeptides (i.e., peptide isosteres with one peptide bond replaced by a phosphinic acid moiety) were analyzed and physicochemically characterized by capillary zone electrophoresis in the pH range of 1.1-3.2, employing phosphoric, phosphinic, oxalic and dichloroacetic acids as background electrolyte (BGE) constituents. The acid dissociation constant (pK(a)) of phosphinate group in phosphinic pseudopeptides and ionic mobilities of these analytes were determined from the pH dependence of their effective electrophoretic mobilities corrected to standard temperature and constant ionic strength of the BGEs. It was shown that these corrections are necessary whenever precise mobility data at very low pH are to be determined. Additionally, it was found that the ionic mobilities of the phosphinic pseudopeptides and pK(a) of their phosphinate group are affected by the BGE constituent used. The variability of migration behavior of the pseudopeptides can be attributed to their ion-pairing formation with the BGE components.     

Thermal behaviour of new N,N-dimethylbiguanide complexes having selective and effective antibacterial activity

The complexes of the type M(HDMBG)₂(CH₃COO)₂·nH₂O ((1) M:Mn, n=1.5; (2) M:Ni, n=0; (3) M:Cu, n=2; (4) M:Zn, n=2; DMBG: N,N-dimethylbiguanide) present in vitro antimicrobial activity. The thermal analysis has evidenced the thermal intervals of stability and also the thermodynamics effects that accompany them. The different nature of the ligands generates a different thermal behaviour for the complexes. The thermal transformations are complex processes according to TG and DTG curves including dehydration, oxidative condensation of –C=N– units as well as thermolysis processes. The final products of decomposition are the most stable metal oxides.     

Die elektrochemische Reduktion von CSSe und CSe2 in Dimethylformamid: Heterocyclische 1,2-Dichalkogenolate und ihre Koordinationschemie

Electrochemical Reduction of CSSe and CSe₂ in Dimethylformamide: Heterocyclic 1,2-Dichalcogenolates and their Coordination Chemistry Starting from carbon diselenide or carbon selenidesulfide the electrochemical preparation (electrosynthesis) of heterocyclic dichalcogenolates C₃X₅^2? (X = Se: dsis; X = S/Se: C₃S_xSe_y^2?) is outlined. The 1,2-dichalcogenolate compounds were isolated and characterized as dibenzoyl derivatives. Bis- or tris-chelates of general type A_m[M(C₃X₅)_n] (with A = Bu₄N⁺, Ph₄As⁺; M = Zn^II, Pt^II, Pd^II, Ni^III, Cu^III, Au^III, In^III; X = Se, S/Se; m = 1, 2, 3; n = 2, 3, respectively) are available directly from methanolic solutions of the dibenzoylates after hydrolytic cleavage of the latter with sodium methanolate. In addition bis-chelates Bu₄N[Ni(C₃X₅)₂] (X = Se, S/Se) have been characterized by cyclovoltammetry and epr spectroscopy and compared with the corresponding all-sulfur ligand compound Bu₄N[Ni(dmit)₂] (X = S). Arguments are given for the fact that the allselenium ligand dsis (X = Se) yields the Cu^III or Ni^III chelate at once whereas with dmit using identical conditions the metal(II) compounds are formed.     

On fixed points of holomorphic automorphisms

Summary Banach M-lattices are studied from the view point whether all the biholomorphic automorphisms of their unit balls admit fixed points when continuously extended to the closure of the unit ball. A characterization of compact topologieal F-spaces is found in terms of the fixed points of the elements of AutB(C()) which enables to establish some particular properties also of the topological automorphisms of compact F-spaces. Finally it is shown that if the M- lattice E admits a predual then each member of Aut B(E) has fixed point if and only if E is isometrically isomorphic with some l-space.     

Radon Measure-Valued Solutions for a Class of Quasilinear Parabolic Equations

Initial value problems for quasilinear parabolic equations having Radon measures as initial data have been widely investigated, looking for solutions which for positive times take values in some function space. In contrast, it is the purpose of this paper to define and investigate solutions that for positive times take values in the space of the Radon measures of the initial data. We call such solutions measure-valued, in contrast to function-valued solutionspreviously considered in the literature. We first show that there is a natural notion of measure-valued solution of problem (P) below, in spite of its nonlinear character. A major consequence of our definition is that, if the space dimension is greater than one, the concentrated part of the solution with respect to the Newtonian capacity is constant in time. Subsequently, we prove that there exists exactly one solution of the problem, such that the diffuse part with respect to the Newtonian capacity of the singular part of the solution (with respect to the Lebesgue measure) is concentrated for almost every positive time on the set where “the regular part (with respect to the Lebesgue measure) is large”. Moreover, using a family of entropy inequalities we demonstrate that the singular part of the solution is nonincreasing in time. Finally, the regularity problem is addressed, as we give conditions (depending on the space dimension, the initial data and the rate of convergence at infinity of the nonlinearity ψ) to ensure that the measure-valued solution of problem (P) is, in fact, function-valued.     

Understanding the Origin of Highly Selective CO2 Electroreduction to CO on Ni,N-doped Carbon Catalysts

Ni,N-doped carbon catalysts have shown promising catalytic performance for CO₂ electroreduction (CO₂R) to CO; this activity has often been attributed to the presence of nitrogen-coordinated, single Ni atom active sites. However, experimentally confirming Ni−N bonding and correlating CO₂ reduction (CO₂R) activity to these species has remained a fundamental challenge. We synthesized polyacrylonitrile-derived Ni,N-doped carbon electrocatalysts (Ni-PACN) with a range of pyrolysis temperatures and Ni loadings and correlated their electrochemical activity with extensive physiochemical characterization to rigorously address the origin of activity in these materials. We found that the CO₂R to CO partial current density increased with increased Ni content before plateauing at 2 wt % which suggests a dispersed Ni active site. These dispersed active sites were investigated by hard and soft X-ray spectroscopy, which revealed that pyrrolic nitrogen ligands selectively bind Ni atoms in a distorted square-planar geometry that strongly resembles the active sites of molecular metal–porphyrin catalysts.     

A Yeast Chemical Genetic Screen Identifies Inhibitors of Human Telomerase

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Highlights? Growth arrest induced by human telomerase in yeast is chemically reversible ? Readout is sensitive to telomerase catalytic activity and telomere recruitment ? Three cell-permeable compounds also inhibit purified human telomerase ? Yeast can be successfully used to screen for human telomerase inhibitors