Perfluoroalkylated eight- and nine-membered benzoheterocycles from F-2-methyl-2-pentene

The reactions of $\text{F}$-2-methyl-2-pentene (1) with several $\text{ortho}$- difunctional benzenes afforded eight- and nine-membered benzoheterocyclic compounds carrying perfluoroalkyl groups. Salicylic acid, salicylaldehyde, and their methyl or chloro derivatives reacted in triethylamine-acetonitrile system giving perfluoroalkylated 2H,6H-1,5-benzodioxocin-2,6-dione (8) and 4H,6H-1,5-benzodioxocin (9) compounds respectively, while phthalyl alcohol and o-hydroxyphenethyl alcohol in triethylamine-diethyl ether system gave perfluoroalkylated 1H,3H,7H-2,6- and 4H,6H,7H-1,5-benzodioxonin compounds, (10) and (11). o-Aminobenzyl alcohol and (1) in diethyl ether afforded a perfluoroalkylated benzoxazocinobenzoxazocinone compound (15).     

A facile and general route to 4-substituted-2 butenolides

Grignard reagents react with 7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride and produce in high yields the corresponding substituted bicyclo-γ-butanolides. These lactones produce the title compounds by retro Diels-Alder reaction during distillation.     

A modified steepest descent method with applications to maximizing likelihood functions

In maximizing a non-linear function G(), it is well known that the steepest descent method has a slow convergence rate. Here we propose a systematic procedure to obtain a 1–1 transformation on the variables , so that in the space of the transformed variables, the steepest descent method produces the solution faster. The final solution in the original space is obtained by taking the inverse transformation. We apply the procedure in maximizing the likelihood functions of some generalized distributions which are widely used in modeling count data. It was shown that for these distributions, the steepest descent method via transformations produced the solutions very fast. It is also observed that the proposed procedure can be used to expedite the convergence rate of the first derivative based algorithms, such as Polak-Ribiere, Fletcher and Reeves conjugate gradient methods as well.     

Commutativity theorems for s-unital rings with constraints on commutators

Let R be an associative s-unital ring with the polynomial identity \( y^{s}[x^{n},y]=\pm [x,y^{m}]x^t\) or \( y^{s}[x^{n},y]=\pm x^{t}[x,y^{m}]\) , where m, n, s and t are given non-negative integers such that m > 0 or n > 0 and m ≠ n if s = m ? 1 and t = n ? 1. Using similar methods as in our recent papers [1] and [2], we prove here the commutativity of R for various values of m, n, s and t, under appropriate constraints on torsion of commutators.     

Enantioseparations by capillary electro-chromatography: differences exhibited by normal- and reversed-phase versions of polysaccharide stationary phases

The influence of using normal-phase and reversed-phase versions of four commercial polysaccharide stationary phases on chiral separations was investigated with capillary electrochromatography (CEC). Both versions of the stationary phases, Chiralcel OD, OJ, and Chiralpak AD, AS were tested for the separation of two basic, two acidic, a bifunctional, and a neutral compound. Different background electrolytes were used, two at low pH for the acid, bifunctional and neutral substances, and three at high pH for the basic, bifunctional and neutral ones. This setup allowed evaluating differences between both stationary-phase versions and between mobile-phase compositions on a chiral separation. Duplicate CEC columns of each stationary phase were in-house prepared and tested, giving information about the intercolumn reproducibility. In general, reversed-phase versions of the current commercial polysaccharide stationary phases are found to be best for reversed-phase CEC, even though at high pH no significant differences were seen between both versions. Most differences were observed at low pH. For acidic compounds, it was seen that an ammonium formate electrolyte performed best, which is also an excellent electrolyte if coupling with mass spectrometry is desired. For basic, bifunctional and neutral compounds, no significant differences between the three tested electrolytes were observed at high pH. Here, a phosphate buffer is preferred as electrolyte because of its buffering capacities. However, if coupling to mass spectrometry is wanted, the more volatile ammonium bicarbonate electrolyte can be used as an alternative.     

Effect of cold work on the dissolution kinetics in the precipitating Al-2 wt% Mg alloy

The fracture stress _f was taken to assess the mechanism of dissolution of the -phase in the Al-2 wt% Mg alloy. The role of pre-cold working the polycrystalline samples was investigated. The dissolution of the -phase was carried out at different temperatures. The relation between the fracture stress and the time of dissolution showed peaky curves. The rise of _f towards a maximum was attributed to the progressive dissolution of the precipitates. The position of the peak was found to shift towards lower times of dissolution with the increase of the dissolution temperature or the increase of the pre-cold work. Considering the peak position indicative of a certain degree of dissolution, equivalent times and temperatures of the dissolution mechanism were thus found and the activation energy was calculated. Pre-cold working the samples before the dissolution act decreased the activation energy responsible for the process from 1·95×10^–19 J to about 0·48× 10^–19 J. The initial drop in _f observed for heavily cold worked samples pointed towards the possible effect of excess vacancies created by cold work.The authors are really grateful for the enlightening discussions with Prof. R. Kamel.     

Efficient Oxidation of Cyclohexane over Bulk Nickel Oxide under Mild Conditions

Nickel oxide powder was prepared by simple calcination of nickel nitrate hexahydrate at 500 °C for 5 h and used as a catalyst for the oxidation of cyclohexane to produce the cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol—KA oil. Molecular oxygen (O₂), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), t-butyl hydrogen peroxide (TBHP) and meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (m-CPBA) were evaluated as oxidizing agents under different conditions. m-CPBA exhibited higher catalytic activity compared to other oxidants. Using 1.5 equivalent of m-CPBA as an oxygen donor agent for 24 h at 70 °C, in acetonitrile as a solvent, NiO powder showed exceptional catalytic activity for the oxidation of cyclohexane to produce KA oil. Compared to different catalytic systems reported in the literature, for the first time, about 85% of cyclohexane was converted to products, with 99% KA oil selectivity, including around 87% and 13% selectivity toward cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol, respectively. The reusability of NiO catalyst was also investigated. During four successive cycles, the conversion of cyclohexane and the selectivity toward cyclohexanone were decreased progressively to 63% and 60%, respectively, while the selectivity toward cyclohexanol was increased gradually to 40%.     

Carnosic Acid Encapsulated in Albumin Nanoparticles Induces Apoptosis in Breast and Colorectal Cancer Cells

Carnosic acid (CA) is a natural phenolic compound with several biomedical actions. This work was performed to study the use of CA-loaded polymeric nanoparticles to improve the antitumor activity of breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and colon cancer cells (Caco-2). CA was encapsulated in bovine serum albumin (BSA), chitosan (CH), and cellulose (CL) nanoparticles. The CA-loaded BSA nanoparticles (CA-BSA-NPs) revealed the most promising formula as it showed good loading capacity and the best release rate profile as the drug reached 80% after 10 h. The physicochemical characterization of the CA-BSA-NPs and empty carrier (BSA-NPs) was performed by the particle size distribution analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and zeta potential. The antitumor activity of the CA-BSA-NPs was evaluated by measuring cell viability, apoptosis rate, and gene expression of GCLC, COX-2, and BCL-2 in MCF-7 and Caco-2. The cytotoxicity assay (MTT) showed elevated antitumor activity of CA-BSA-NPs against MCF-7 and Caco-2 compared to free CA and BSA-NPs. Moreover, apoptosis test data showed an arrest of the Caco-2 cells at G₂/M (10.84%) and the MCF-7 cells at G2/M (4.73%) in the CA-BSA-NPs treatment. RT-PCR-based gene expression analysis showed an upregulation of the GCLC gene and downregulation of the BCL-2 and COX-2 genes in cells treated with CA-BSA-NPs compared to untreated cells. In conclusion, CA-BSA-NPs has been introduced as a promising formula for treating breast and colorectal cancer.     

Chemical and Pharmacological Profiling of Wrightia coccinea (Roxb. Ex Hornem.) Sims Focusing Antioxidant,Cytotoxic, Antidiarrheal,Hypoglycemic, and Analgesic Properties

The aim of the study was to conduct phytochemical and pharmacological investigations of Wrightia coccinea (Roxb. ex Hornem.) Sims via several in vitro, in vivo, and in silico models. A total of four compounds were identified and isolated from the methanol extract of the bark and the methanol extract of the seed pulp of W. coccinea through successive chromatographic techniques and were characterized as 3β-acetyloxy-olean-12-en-28-ol (1), wrightiadione (2), 22β-hydroxylupeol (3), and β-sitosterol (4) by spectroscopic analysis. The aqueous fraction of the bark and chloroform fraction of the fruits provided the most potent antioxidant capacity (IC₅₀ = 7.22 and 4.5 µg/mL, respectively) in DPPH free radical scavenging assay compared with the standard ascorbic acid (IC₅₀ = 17.45 µg/mL). The methanol bark extract and the methanol fruit coat extract exerted anti-diarrheal activity by inhibiting 74.55 ± 0.67% and 77.78 ± 1.5% (mean ± SEM) of the diarrheal episode in mice, respectively, after four hours of loading the samples. In the hypoglycemic test, the methanol bark extract and the methanol fruit coat extract (400 mg/kg) produced a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in the blood glucose level in mice. Both doses of the plant extracts (200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg) used in the study induced a significant (p < 0.05) increase in pain reaction time. The in vitro and in vivo findings were supported by the computational studies. The isolated compounds exhibited higher binding affinity compared with the standard drugs towards the active binding sites of glutathione reductase, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), kappa opioid receptor, glucose transporter 3 (GLUT 3), Mu opioid receptor, and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) proteins due to their potent antioxidant, cytotoxic, anti-diarrheal, hypoglycemic, and central and peripheral analgesic properties, respectively. The current findings concluded that W. coccinea might be a potential natural source for managing oxidative stress, diarrhea, hyperglycemia, and pain. Further studies are warranted for extensively phytochemical screening and establishing exact mechanisms of action.