Water dispersed gold nanoparticles catalyzed aerobic oxidative cross-dehydrogenative coupling: An efficient synthesis of α-ketoamides in water

An effective green synthesis of α-ketoamides was developed for the first time in water via gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) catalyzed aerobic oxidative cross-dehydrogenative coupling of secondary amines with phenylglyoxals with a broad substrate scope.     

Synthesis,structural studies and antituberculosis evaluation of new hydrazone derivatives of quinoline and their Zn(II) complexes

The quinoline hydrazone ligands were synthesized through multi-step reactions. The 2-hydroxy-3-formylquinoline derivatives (1a–1c) were prepared from acetanilide derivatives as starting materials using Vilsmeier–Haack reaction. Then the condensation of 2-hydroxy-3-formylquinoline derivatives with hydrazide derivatives (2a–2c) yielded quinoline hydrazone ligands (3a–3i). The synthesis of a new series of Zn(II) complexes carried out by refluxing with these quinoline hydrazone ligands (3a–3i) is reported. The molecular structures of the ligands (3a–3i) and the Zn complexes were characterized by elemental analysis and spectral studies like FT-IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, MS, UV–Visible and fluorescence. The preliminary results of antituberculosis study showed that most of the Zn(II) complexes 4a–4i demonstrated very good antituberculosis activity while the ligands 3a–3i showed moderate activity. Among the tested compounds 4e and 4g were found to be most active with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 8.00 μM and 7.42 μM respectively against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H37 RV strain) ATCC No-27294 which is comparable to “first and second line” drugs used to treat tuberculosis.     

NaF-catalyzed efficient one-pot synthesis of dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazoles under ultrasonic irradiation via MCR approach

Sodium fluoride was identified as an efficient catalyst for the preparation of series of dihydropyrano [2,3-c]pyrazoles (4a–l) by the three-component condensation of 3-Methyl-1-phenyl-2-pyrazoline-5-one (1), aromatic aldehydes (2) and malononitrile (3) in aqueous methanol at ambient temperature under ultrasonication. The cost and efficacy of the catalyst, mild reaction conditions, simple workup procedure, less reaction time and higher yields of the product with analytical purity keeping this protocol superior to the previously reported ones. Structures of all the compounds were in agreement with their spectroscopic data (¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR) and elemental (CHN) analyses.     

Preparation and physicochemical and electrochemical characterization of exfoliated graphite oxide

Exfoliated graphite oxide (EGO) is prepared by oxidizing exfoliated graphite (EG) using a mixture of KMnO(4)/H(2)SO(4). The physicochemical characterization of the EGO has been carried out using FT-Raman, FT-IR, XPS, NMR, and diffraction techniques. Colloidal form of EGO is subsequently prepared by ultrasonicating EGO in water. Thin films of EGO on a glassy carbon/gold surface are formed and the electrochemical and ion exchange properties have been studied using various redox systems such as K(4)[Fe(CN)(6)], ascorbic acid, and dopamine. The charge-based adsorption properties can be made use of, to either suppress or catalyze ascorbic acid oxidation. Adsorption and preconcentration of dopamine on the EGO film has been shown to electrocatalyze the oxidation of NADH.     

Higher-alcohols biorefinery

The concept of a biorefinery for higher-alcohol production is to integrate ethanol and methanol formation via fermentation and biomass gasification, respectively, with, conversion of these simple alcohol intermediates into higher alcohols via the Guerbet reaction. 1-Butanol results from the selfcondensation of ethanol in this multistep reaction occurring on a single catalytic bed. Combining methanol with ethanol gives a mixture of propanol, isobutanol, and 2-methyl-1-butanol. All of these higher alcohols are usefulas solvents, chemical intermediates, and fuel additives and, consequently, have higher market values than the simple alcohol intermediates. Several new catalysts for the condensation of ethanol and alcohol mixtures to higher alcohols were designed and tested under a variety of conditions. Reactions of methanol ethanol mixtures gave as high as 100% conversion of the ethanol to form high yields of isobutanol with smaller amounts of 1-propanol, the amounts in the mixture depending on the starting mixture. The most successful catalysts are multifunctional with basic and hydrogen transfer components.     

Calreticulin Transacetylase Mediates the Acetylation of Nitric Oxide Synthase by Polyphenolic Acetate

Our earlier investigations identified acetoxy drug: protein transacetylase (TAase), a unique enzyme in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) catalyzing the transfer of acetyl groups from polyphenolic acetates (PA) to certain functional proteins. Recently we have established the identity of TAase with ER protein calreticulin (CR) and subsequently transacetylase function of CR was termed calreticulin transacetylase (CRTAase). CRTAase was purified and characterized from human placenta. CRTAase catalyzed the acetylation of a receptor protein nNOS, by a model PA 7, 8-diacetoxy-4-methylcoumarin (DAMC), which was visually confirmed by using antiacetyl lysine. The aim of this report was to provide tacit proof by providing mass spectrometry evidence for CRTAase catalyzed acetylation of purified nNOS by DAMC. For this purpose, purified nNOS was incubated with DAMC and CRTAase, the modified nNOS was analyzed by nanoscale LC-MS/MS, which recorded 11 distinct peptides with a significant score as acetylated on lysine residues. The distribution was in order: lysines-24, -33, -38, -131, and -229 of the PDZ domain, Lys-245 of the oxygenase domain, Lys-754 and -856 of FMN binding domain, Lys-989 of connecting domain and Lys-1300, -1321, and -1371 of the NADPH-binding domain were acetylated. The results documented in this paper highlighted for the first time modification of nNOS by way of acetylation. Our earlier work recorded the profound activation of platelet NADPH cytochrome P-450 reductase and the acetylation of the reductase protein by DAMC, which also remarkably enhanced intracellular levels of nitric oxide. The results reported here coupled with the aforementioned previous observations strongly implicate the possible role of the acetylation of the reductase domain of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in the NOS activation. In addition, the acetylation of nNOS can be expected to potentiate the interaction with CR, eventually leading to the augmented catalytic activity of NOS and expression of the related biological effects.     

Temperature-Dependent Mechanical Response of an UFG Aluminum Alloy at High Rates

High temperature (298 K–573 K) and high strain rate (4000 s⁻¹) compression experiments were performed on a cryomilled ultra-fine grained (UFG) Al-5083 using a modified Kolsky bar with a heating system designed to reduce “cold contact” time. The resulting stress strain curves show a reduction in strength of approximately 300 MPa at the highest temperature tested. This softening has been related to a thermally activated deformation mechanism. In addition, an experimental procedure was developed to investigate the microstructure evolution during the preheating, prior to mechanical loading, so as to identify the intrinsic mechanical response of the material at high temperatures. The results of this procedure are in good agreement with a TEM study on material that has been heated but not loaded.     

Global stability analysis of axisymmetric boundary layer over a circular cylinder

This paper presents a linear global stability analysis of the incompressible axisymmetric boundary layer on a circular cylinder. The base flow is parallel to the axis of the cylinder at inflow boundary. The pressure gradient is zero in the streamwise direction. The base flow velocity profile is fully non-parallel and non-similar in nature. The boundary layer grows continuously in the spatial directions. Linearized Navier–Stokes (LNS) equations are derived for the disturbance flow quantities in the cylindrical polar coordinates. The LNS equations along with homogeneous boundary conditions forms a generalized eigenvalues problem. Since the base flow is axisymmetric, the disturbances are periodic in azimuthal direction. Chebyshev spectral collocation method and Arnoldi’s iterative algorithm is used for the solution of the general eigenvalues problem. The global temporal modes are computed for the range of Reynolds numbers and different azimuthal wave numbers. The largest imaginary part of the computed eigenmodes is negative, and hence, the flow is temporally stable. The spatial structure of the eigenmodes shows that the disturbance amplitudes grow in size and magnitude while they are moving towards downstream. The global modes of axisymmetric boundary layer are more stable than that of 2D flat-plate boundary layer at low Reynolds number. However, at higher Reynolds number they approach 2D flat-plate boundary layer. Thus, the damping effect of transverse curvature is significant at low Reynolds number. The wave-like nature of the disturbance amplitudes is found in the streamwise direction for the least stable eigenmodes.     

A Dynamic Inflation Test for Soft Materials

We developed a dynamic inflation experiment to measure the elastodynamic behavior of soft materials. In the experiments, a shock tube was used to apply dynamic pressurization to thin polydimethylsiloxane specimens. Two high-speed cameras were used to image the deforming specimen and three-dimensional digital image correlation was used to determine the three-dimensional displacement field of the specimen surface. We applied dynamic Kirchhoff plate bending theory and concepts from structural dynamics to derive a mathematical expression for the dynamic Young’s modulus. The phase velocity of the initial transverse wave propagation response and the vibration frequency of the long-time response were captured during our experiments and were applied in the calculation of the dynamic Young’s modulus.     

ANTHEM: anatomically tailored hexagonal MRI

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the use of anatomically tailored hexagonal sampling for scan-time and error reduction in MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Anatomically tailored hexagonal MRI (ANTHEM), a method that combines hexagonal sampling with specific symmetry in anatomical geometry, is proposed. By using hexagonal sampling, aliasing artifacts are moved to regions where, due to the nature of the anatomy, aliasing is inconsequential. This can be used to either reduce scan time while maintaining spatial resolution or reduce residual errors in speedup techniques like UNFOLD and k-t BLAST/SENSE, which undersample k-space and unwrap fold-over artifacts during reconstruction. Computer simulations as well as phantom and volunteer studies were used to validate the theory. A simplified reconstruction algorithm for hexagonally sampled and subsampled k-space data was also used. RESULTS: A reduction in sampling density of 13.4% and 25% in each hexagonally sampled dimension was achieved for spherical and conical geometries without aliasing or reduction in spatial resolution. Optimal subsampling schemes that can be utilized by UNFOLD and k-t BLAST/SENSE were derived using hexagonal subsampling, which resulted in maximal, isotropic dispersal of the aliases. In combination with UNFOLD, ANTHEM was shown to move residual aliasing artifacts to the corners of the field of view, yielding reduced artifacts in CINE reconstructions. CONCLUSIONS: ANTHEM was successful in reducing acquisition time in conventional MRI and in reducing errors in UNFOLD imaging.