Coibanoles, a new class of meroterpenoids produced by Pycnoporus sanguineus

Three new terpenoids of mixed biosynthetic origin were isolated from the culture filtrate of the endophytic fungus Pycnoporus sanguineus. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses. We have named these tricyclic and tetracyclic metabolites ‘coibanoles A-C’ in reference to Coiba Island and Coiba National Park, Panamá, from which the plant and endophyte were collected. The extract was inactive to the human parasites Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania donovani, and Plasmodium falciparum at a test concentration of 10 μg/mL.     

Nonprecious metal catalysts for fuel cell applications: electrochemical dioxygen activation by a series of first row transition metal tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine complexes

A series of divalent first row triflate complexes supported by the ligand tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (TPA) have been investigated as oxygen reduction catalysts for fuel cell applications. [(TPA)M(2+)](n+) (M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) derivatives were synthesized and characterized by X-ray crystallography, cyclic voltammetry, NMR spectroscopy, magnetic susceptibility, IR spectroscopy, and conductance measurements. The stoichiometric and electrochemical O(2) reactivities of the series were examined. Rotating-ring disk electrode (RRDE) voltammetry was used to examine the catalytic activity of the complexes on a carbon support in acidic media, emulating fuel cell performance. The iron complex displayed a selectivity of 89% for four-electron conversion and demonstrated the fastest reaction kinetics, as determined by a kinetic current of 7.6 mA. Additionally, the Mn, Co, and Cu complexes all showed selective four-electron oxygen reduction (<28% H(2)O(2)) at onset potentials (~0.44 V vs RHE) comparable to state of the art molecular catalysts, while being straightforward to access synthetically and derived from nonprecious metals.     

Theoretical exploration of uranyl complexes of a designed polypyrrolic macrocycle: structure/property effects of hinge size on Pacman-shaped complexes

A polypyrrolic macrocycle with naphthalenyl linkers between the N(4)-donor compartments (L(2)) was designed theoretically according to its experimentally-known analogues with phenylenyl (L(1)) and anthracenyl (L(3)) linkers. The uranyl and bis(uranyl) complexes formed by this L(2) ligand have been examined using scalar-relativistic density functional theory. The calculated structural properties of the mononuclear uranyl-L(2) complexes are similar to those of their L(1) counterparts. The binuclear L(2) complexes exhibit a butterfly-like bis(uranyl) core in which a linear uranyl is coordinated in a side-by-side fashion to a cis-uranyl unit. The calculated U[double bond, length as m-dash]O bond orders in the uranyl-L(2) complexes indicate partial triple bonding character with the only exceptions being the U-O(endo) bonds in the U(2)O(4) core of the butterfly-shaped binuclear complexes. Overall, the bond orders agree with the trends in the calculated U[double bond, length as m-dash]O stretching vibrational frequencies. Regarding the bis(uranyl) L(1), L(2) and L(3) complexes, the phenylenyl-hinge L(1) complexes adopt a butterfly-like and a T-shaped isomer in the oxidation state of U(vi), but only a butterfly-like one in the U(v), which differs from that of the naphthalenyl-hinge L(2) complexes as well as the lateral twisted structure of the anthracenyl-hinge L(3) complexes. The intramolecular cation-cation interactions are found in the L(1) and L(2) complexes, but are absent in the L(3) complexes. Finally, using model uranyl transfer reactions from the L(1) complexes, the formation of the mononuclear L(2) complexes is calculated to be a slightly endothermic process. This suggests that it should be possible to synthesize the L(2) complexes using similar protocols as employed for the L(1) complexes.     

Homo- and heteronuclear meso,meso-(E)-ethene-1,2-diyl-linked diporphyrins: preparation, x-ray crystal structure, electronic absorption and emission spectra and density functional theory calculations

Homo- and heteronuclear meso,meso-(E)-ethene-1,2-diyl-linked diporphyrins have been prepared by the Suzuki coupling of porphyrinylboronates and iodovinylporphyrins. Combinations comprising 5,10,15-triphenylporphyrin (TriPP) on both ends of the ethene-1,2-diyl bridge M(2)10 (M(2) =H(2)/Ni, Ni(2), Ni/Zn, H(4), H(2)Zn, Zn(2)) and 5,15-bis(3,5-di-tert-butylphenyl)porphyrinato-nickel(II) on one end and H(2), Ni, and ZnTriPP on the other (M(2)11), enable the first studies of this class of compounds possessing intrinsic polarity. The compounds were characterized by electronic absorption and steady state emission spectra, (1)H?NMR spectra, and for the Ni(2) bis(TriPP) complex Ni(2)10, single crystal X-ray structure determination. The crystal structure shows ruffled distortions of the porphyrin rings, typical of Ni(II) porphyrins, and the (E)-C(2)H(2) bridge makes a dihedral angle of 50° with the mean planes of the macrocycles. The result is a stepped parallel arrangement of the porphyrin rings. The dihedral angles in the solid state reflect the interplay of steric and electronic effects of the bridge on interporphyrin communication. The emission spectra in particular, suggest energy transfer across the bridge is fast in conformations in which the bridge is nearly coplanar with the rings. Comparisons of the fluorescence behaviour of H(4)10 and H(2)Ni10 show strong quenching of the free base fluorescence when the complex is excited at the lower energy component of the Soret band, a feature associated in the literature with more planar conformations. TDDFT calculations on the gas-phase optimized geometry of Ni(2)10 reproduce the features of the experimental electronic absorption spectrum within 0.1 eV.     

Effect of high pressures on the enzymatic activity of commercial milk protein coagulants

This study was aimed at determining the effect of high pressures in the range of 100–1000 MPa/15 min, applied in 100 MPa increments, on the coagulating and proteolytic activity of commercial coagulants produced with genetic engineering methods: Maxiren, Chymogen, Chymax and of a natural rennin preparation, Hala. The coagulating activity of Hala preparation differed compared with the other preparations, due to greater resistance to high pressures, especially in the range of 500–600 MPa. The preparations produced with genetic engineering methods lost their capability for milk protein coagulation by 500 MPa. Pressurization at 200 MPa contributed to their reduced capability for casein macroproteolysis. In contrast, an increase in Chymax, Chymogen, Maxiren and Hala preparations’ hydrolytic capability for the macroproteolysis of isoelectric casein was observed upon pressure treatment at 100 and 400 MPa and for microproteolysis after pressure treatment at 200 MPa. Storage (48 h/5°C) of the pressurized preparations had an insignificant effect on their coagulating and proteolytic activities.     

Microbead dynamics in optical trap assisted nanopatterning

An optically pumped ZnO nanowire laser with a 10-period SiO₂/SiN _x distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) was demonstrated. Stimulated emissions with equally distributed Fabry–Pérot lasing modes were observed at pumping powers larger than 121 kW/cm². This result, when compared to nanowires of the same length and without a DBR structure, shows that a lower threshold of pumping power, higher quality factor, and larger cavity finesse can be achieved due to the high reflectivity of the DBR in the designed wavelength range. A coexistence of stimulated and spontaneous emissions was also observed above threshold and was attributed to partially confined waveguide modes in nanowires with diameters smaller than 100 nm.     

Self-consistent relaxation-time models in quantum mechanics

ABSTRACT. This paper is concerned with the relaxation-time von Neumann- Poisson (or quantum Liouville-Poisson) equation in three spatial dimensions which describes the self-consistent time evolution of an open quantum me- chanical system that includes some relaxation mechanism. This model and the equivalent relaxation-time Wigner-Poisson system play an important role in the simulation of quantum semiconductor devices. For initial density matrices with finite kinetic energy, we prove that this problem, formulated in the space of Hermitian trace class operators, admits a unique global strong solution. A key ingredient for our analysis is a new generalization of the Lieb-Thirring inequality for density matrix operators.     

Representations of Posets and Indecomposable Torsion-Free Abelian Groups

Representations of posets in certain modules are used to find indecomposable almost completely decomposable torsion-free abelian groups. For a special class of almost completely decomposable groups we determine the possible ranks of indecomposable groups and show that the possible ranks are realized by indecomposable groups in the class.     

Representations of Finite Posets Over Discrete Valuation Rings

Given a discrete valuation ring R, a non-negative integer m, and a finite partially ordered set S, the representation type of a category rep(S*, R, m) of finite rank free R-module representations of S is characterized in terms of S and m. As an application, representation types of some categories of torsion-free abelian groups of finite rank are determined.