Review on asymmetric synthetic methodologies for chiral isoquinuclidines; 2008 to date

Isoquinuclidines constitute the central structural nucleus of numerous biologically active natural products, for example, iboga alkaloids such as ibogamine and catharanthine as well as non-indole-containing alkaloids such as the dioscorine and the cannivonines. Furthermore, in medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, the isoquinuclidine core is commonly employed as a rigid azabicyclic scaffold, thus providing significant precursors in the synthesis of numerous valuable alkaloids. Summarizing well-organized approaches to access the chiral isoquinuclidine structural centerpiece signifies a significant endeavor not only for developing biologically active natural products but also enhancing biological researches that can lead to possible drug discovery. Over time, the values and methodologies for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral isoquinuclidines are increasing; hence to advance asymmetric synthesis, this review combines and discusses the pros and cons of each synthesis techniques from 2008. This review should be helpful for promoting further developments of asymmetric synthetic methodologies and for medicinal chemistry.     

Ring-opening reactions of oxetanes: A review of methodology development and synthetic applications

Ring-opening reactions of oxetanes yield important functionalized products depending upon the nature of nucleophiles as well as substitution pattern on the oxetane ring. Ring opening of oxetanes can be carried out under a variety of reaction conditions. In this review article, an up-to-date overview of major synthetic methodologies involved in the ring opening of oxetanes as well as their synthetic applications has been presented.     

6-Hydroxyhexyl 4-(E)-4-alkoxy/halostyryl)benzoates: synthesis,characterisation and study of mesomorphic and fluorescent properties

Hydroxyhexyl esters of alkoxy and halostilbene carboxylic acids were prepared and studied for thermal, liquid crystalline and fluorescent properties. The decomposition temperatures were determined thermogravimetrically and the compounds were found stable at least up to 200°C. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicated two mesophases in alkoxystilbene caboxylates. The smectic nature of the liquid crystal (LC) compounds was identified from the optical textures and confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, where SmA, SmB and CrE mesophases were observed. The compounds 3a-g and 3h-k show single absorption maxima in UV-visible spectra at around 338 and 322 nm, respectively. All the alkoxy compounds emit blue light in solution and in solid state in the wavelength range of 422–425 nm.     

Improving the Retrieval of Arabic Web Search Results Using Enhanced k-Means Clustering Algorithm

Traditional information retrieval systems return a ranked list of results to a user’s query. This list is often long, and the user cannot explore all the results retrieved. It is also ineffective for a highly ambiguous language such as Arabic. The modern writing style of Arabic excludes the diacritical marking, without which Arabic words become ambiguous. For a search query, the user has to skim over the document to infer if the word has the same meaning they are after, which is a time-consuming task. It is hoped that clustering the retrieved documents will collate documents into clear and meaningful groups. In this paper, we use an enhanced k-means clustering algorithm, which yields a faster clustering time than the regular k-means. The algorithm uses the distance calculated from previous iterations to minimize the number of distance calculations. We propose a system to cluster Arabic search results using the enhanced k-means algorithm, labeling each cluster with the most frequent word in the cluster. This system will help Arabic web users identify each cluster’s topic and go directly to the required cluster. Experimentally, the enhanced k-means algorithm reduced the execution time by 60% for the stemmed dataset and 47% for the non-stemmed dataset when compared to the regular k-means, while slightly improving the purity.     

Electrochemical Mechanisms in Potentiometric Phosphate Sensing Using Pure Cobalt,Molybdenum and their Alloy for Environmental Applications

Phosphorus (P) is ubiquitous in the environment, but its measurement is costly and time-consuming. Sensor-based measurement shows potential, but selection of right metal remains the major challenge due to strong P species dependence on pH. This study examined the feasibility of pure cobalt, molybdenum, and their electrodeposited alloy, Co₆₃Mo₄₂ (wt %), as phosphate sensors. The cobalt, molybdenum and alloy exhibited mixed potential, Nernst potential, and oxidation-reduction (red-ox) mechanisms, respectively. Alloy showed good selectivity over a wide pH range, but high limit of detection and long response time (8–14 minutes). Yet, alloy provides a new opportunity for improving electrochemical phosphate sensors.     

Normal mode splitting in hybrid BEC-optomechanical system

We consider an opto-mechanical cavity system consisting of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), trapped inside the optical cavity and driven by single mode laser field. The intracavity field acts as nonlinear spring which couples the condensate mode with moving end mirror of the cavity. We study the occurrence of normal mode splitting in the position spectra of the mechanical oscillator and condensate mode as a consequence of hybridization of the fluctuations of intracavity field, mechanical mode and condensate mode. We also discuss the modification in the dynamics of the mechanical oscillator due to frequency of the collective oscillations of cold atoms and the back action of the atoms on the mechanical mirror. Moreover, we investigate the normal mode splitting in the transmission spectrum of cavity field.