8-Substituted Xanthines as Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors: Conformation-Dependent Lipophilicity and Structure-Activity Relationships

The 8-substituted xanthines 1 – 21 (including compound S 9795), caffeine ( 22 ), and the three isomeric dimethyl-xanthines 23 – 25 (see Table 1), were examined for their lipophilic behaviour using a reversed-phase HPLC technique. A number of flexible compounds showed a smaller-than-expected lipophilicity which based on conformational and tautomeric calculations were ascribed to the predominance of folded forms. A QSAR analysis of the phosphodiesterase-inhibitory potency of several compounds showed favourable factors to be a low lipophilicity and the absence of a substituent on the N⁷ position.     

Synthesis and characterization of copper(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II), and iron(III) complexes with two diamine Schiff bases and catalytic reactivity of a chiral diamine cobalt(II) complex

New transition metal complexes of Co(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), and Fe(III) of the ligands 6,6′-(1E,1′E)-(4,5-dimethyl-1,2-phenylene)bis(azan-1-yl-1-ylidene)bis(methan-1-yl-1-ylidene)bis(7-hydroxy-5-methoxy-2-methyl-4H-chromen-4-one) H₂L¹ and 6,6’-(1E,1′E)-cyclohexane-1,2-diylbis(azan-1-yl-1-ylidene)bis(methan-1-yl-1-ylidene)bis(7-hydroxy-5-methoxy-2-methyl-4H-chromen-4-one) H₂L² have been prepared and characterized using physio-chemical and spectroscopic methods. The results obtained for the complexes indicated that the geometries of the metal centres are either square planar or octahedral. Cyclopropanation reactions of unactivated olefins by ethyldiazoacetate (EDA) in the presence of [L¹Cu]·H₂O, [L²Cu]·2H₂O and [L²*Co]·2H₂O as catalysts were examined. The results showed that only [L²*Co]·2H₂O can act as a catalyst for the cyclopropanation reaction of unactivated olefins with very high selectivity (up to 99% based on EDA).     

Acousto-optic diffraction at liquid-solid interface with light incident at critical angle

A new acousto-optic diffraction configuration is described. At a liquid-solid interface, a light beam is incident from the solid side of higher refractive index. The maximum acousto-optic diffraction of the Raman-Nath type occurs in the liquid with light incident at the critical angle. The angular dependence of the diffraction efficiency indicates accurate optical alignment requirement. Application to acoustic imaging is briefly discussed.     

Laser inhibited diffusion in rhodamine-ethanol solutions

The diffusion of rhodamine-6G dye in ethanol is observed to be inhibited by optical pumping by a cadmium laser. The diffusion process is observed as a function of the solution temperature. The relative difference in diffusion coefficients with and without optical pumping is calculated. The effect is interpreted as being due to a stronger solvent-dye interaction in the first excited singlet state of rhodamine-6G.     

Highly efficient widely tunable subpicosecond double mode-locked laser

A high average power (≈150 mW) subpicosecond (0.5 ps) passively double mode-locked dye laser is described. Two synchronized cw pulse trains are generated which are independently tunable over broad wavelength ranges (≈600 Å).     

The multi-item capacitated lot-sizing problem with setup times and shortage costs

We address a multi-item capacitated lot-sizing problem with setup times and shortage costs that arises in real-world production planning problems. Demand cannot be backlogged, but can be totally or partially lost. The problem is NP-hard. A mixed integer mathematical formulation is presented. Our approach in this paper is to propose some classes of valid inequalities based on a generalization of Miller et al. [A.J. Miller, G.L. Nemhauser, M.W.P. Savelsbergh, On the polyhedral structure of a multi-item production planning model with setup times, Mathematical Programming 94 (2003) 375–405] and Marchand and Wolsey [H. Marchand, L.A. Wolsey, The 0–1 knapsack problem with a single continuous variable, Mathematical Programming 85 (1999) 15–33] results. We also describe fast combinatorial separation algorithms for these new inequalities. We use them in a branch-and-cut framework to solve the problem. Some experimental results showing the effectiveness of the approach are reported.     

Diffusive-Dispersive Traveling Waves and Kinetic Relations: Part I: Nonconvex Hyperbolic Conservation Laws

Motivated by the theory of phase transition dynamics, we consider one-dimensional, nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws with nonconvex flux-function containing vanishing nonlinear diffusive-dispersive terms. Searching for traveling wave solutions, we establish general results of existence, uniqueness, monotonicity, and asymptotic behavior. In particular, we investigate the properties of the traveling waves in the limits of dominant diffusion, dominant dispersion, and asymptotically small or large shock strength. As the diffusion and dispersion parameters tend to 0, the traveling waves converge to shock wave solutions of the conservation law, which either satisfy the classical Oleinik entropy criterion or are nonclassical undercompressive shocks violating it.     

Timed Petri nets and prediction to improve the Chandy–Misra conservative-distributed simulation

The main contribution of this paper shows that distributed simulation of timed Petri nets (TPN) can take advantage of their structure to obtain a significant lookahead which is usually difficult to compute with other models. In this paper, we introduce a conservative-distributed simulation with a reduced number of control messages and without deadlock resolution. This approach is based on a part of optimism computed on the prediction time each logical process can determine for its advancement. Obviously this prediction time must be computed easily according to the structure of the simulated logical process. Timed Petri nets meet these requirements and we use their structure to evaluate the depth of the prediction. In conservative-distributed simulation, it is known that the deeper the prediction, the better the efficiency of the simulation. We present a method we have devised based on channel time prediction. We compare its performance to the Chandy–Misra method and to some related Petri nets approaches (Chiola). Experiments carried out on Sun stations show that there is more parallelism and a reduced number of null messages in the cases of deadlock avoidance. Moreover, considering deadlock detection and resolution technique we observe that in many cases no deadlock occurs with less control messages.     

Schwarz method justification of a coupling between finite elements and integral representation for Maxwell exterior problem

We are interested in the resolution of an exterior Maxwell problem in 3D using a coupling between finite elements and integral representation. This strategy is interpreted as a Schwarz method which suggests a preconditioner for Krylov solvers. Numerical results confirm the relevance of the resolution scheme.