Iodobenzene diacetate (IBD) catalyzed an quick oxidative aromatization of Hantzsch-1,4-dihydropyridines to pyridines under ultrasonic irradiation

This project was undertaken to demonstrate the potential of iodobenzene diacetate for the oxidative aromatization of Hantzch-1,4-dihydropyridines under ultrasonic irradiation. All reactions were carried out under ultrasonic irradiation and results were compared with traditional method. Sonochemical switching was observed in case of oxidative aromatization of 4-n-alkyl substituted 1,4-DHP. Without sonication, dealkylation occurred in case of n-alkyl substituted 1,4-DHP (ionic mechanism) but under ultrasonic irradiation, n-alkyl group was not expelled (radical mechanism). However, secondary alkyl (isopropyl) and benzyl group were expelled under both conditions.     

An analytic framework to develop policies for testing, prevention, and treatment of two-stage contagious diseases

In this paper we consider healthcare policy issues for trading off resources in testing, prevention, and cure of two-stage contagious diseases. An individual that has contracted the two-stage contagious disease will initially show no symptoms of the disease but is capable of spreading it. If the initial stages are not detected which could lead to complications eventually, then symptoms start appearing in the latter stage when it would be necessary to perform expensive treatment. Under a constrained budget situation, policymakers are faced with the decision of how to allocate budget for prevention (via vaccinations), subsidizing treatment, and examination to detect the presence of initial stages of the contagious disease. These decisions need to be performed in each period of a given time horizon. To aid this decision-making exercise, we formulate a stochastic dynamic optimal control problem with feedback which can be modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP). However, solving the MDP is computationally intractable due to the large state space as the embedded stochastic network cannot be decomposed. Hence we propose an asymptotically optimal solution based on a fluid model of the dynamics in the stochastic network. We heuristically fine-tune the asymptotically optimal solution for the non-asymptotic case, and test it extensively for several numerical cases. In particular we investigate the effect of budget, length of planning horizon, type of disease, population size, and ratio of costs on the policy for budget allocation.     

Highly Fluorescent Doped Fe3O4@C Nanoparticles Cross the Blood–Brain Barrier: Help in Brain Imaging and Blocking the Life Cycle of Mosquitoes

Journal of Cluster Science - Day by day, humans and animals are infected with life-threatening and deadly diseases due to mosquito bites. Current methods used to fight these diseases are not fully...     

Bromodimethylsulfonium bromide mediated Michael addition of amines to electron deficient alkenes

Bromodimethylsulfonium bromide has been found to be an efficient catalyst for the Michael addition of a wide variety of amines to electron deficient alkenes at room temperature. The protocol is very simple and chemoselective. Aliphatic and benzylic amines undergo conjugate addition within a very short period under solvent-free conditions and provide excellent yields of products.     

Determination of carbamazepine in formulation samples using dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method followed by ion mobility spectrometry

A simple, sensitive, fast and efficient method based on dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) followed by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has been proposed for preconcentration and trace detection of carbamazepine (CBZ) in formulation samples. In this method, 1 mL of methanol (disperser solvent) containing 80 μL of chloroform (extraction solvent) was rapidly injected by a syringe into a sample. After 5 min centrifugation, the preconcentrated carbamazepine in the organic phase was determined by IMS. Development of DLLME procedure includes optimization of parameters influencing the extraction efficiencies such as kind and volume of extraction solvent, disperser solvent and salt addition, centrifugation time and pH of the sample solution. The proposed method presented good linearity in the range of 0.05–10 μg mL^?1 and the detection limit was 0.025 μg mL^?1. The repeatability of the method expressed as relative standard deviation was 6 % (n = 5). This method has been applied to the analysis of carbamazepine formulation samples with satisfactory relative recoveries ≤75 %.     

Validity of reciprocity rule on mouse skin thermal damage due to CO2 laser irradiation

CO₂ laser (10.6 μm) is a well-known infrared coherent light source as a tool in surgery. At this wavelength there is a high absorbance coefficient (860 cm^?1), because of vibration mode resonance of H₂O molecules. Therefore, the majority of the irradiation energy is absorbed in the tissue and the temperature of the tissue rises as a function of power density and laser exposure duration. In this work, the tissue damage caused by CO₂ laser (1–10 W, ～40–400 W cm^?2, 0.1–6 s) was measured using 30 mouse skin samples. Skin damage assessment was based on measurements of the depth of cut, mean diameter of the crater and the carbonized layer. The results show that tissue damage as assessed above parameters increased with laser fluence and saturated at 1000 J cm^?2. Moreover, the damage effect due to high power density at short duration was not equivalent to that with low power density at longer irradiation time even though the energy delivered was identical. These results indicate the lack of validity of reciprocity (Bunsen-Roscoe) rule for the thermal damage.     

Synthesis of aminouracil-tethered tri-substituted methanes in water by iodine-catalyzed multicomponent reactions

Molecular Diversity - An efficient, mild and environmentally benign protocol has been developed for the synthesis of aminouracil-tethered tri-substituted methane derivatives. The three-component...     

Interactions of Isoquinoline Alkaloids with Transition Metals Iron and Copper

Data on alkaloid interactions with the physiologically important transition metals, iron and copper, are mostly lacking in the literature. However, these interactions can have important consequences in the treatment of both Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. As isoquinoline alkaloids include galanthamine, an approved drug for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as some potentially useful compounds with cytostatic potential, 28 members from this category of alkaloids were selected for a complex screening of interactions with iron and copper at four pathophysiologically relevant pH and in non-buffered conditions (dimethyl sulfoxide) by spectrophotometric methods in vitro. With the exception of the salts, all the alkaloids were able to chelate ferrous and ferric ions in non-buffered conditions, but only five of them (galanthine, glaucine, corydine, corydaline and tetrahydropalmatine) evoked some significant chelation at pH 7.5 and only the first two were also active at pH 6.8. By contrast, none of the tested alkaloids chelated cuprous or cupric ions. All the alkaloids, with the exception of the protopines, significantly reduced the ferric and cupric ions, with stronger effects on the latter. These effects were mostly dependent on the number of free aromatic hydroxyls, but not other hydroxyl groups. The most potent reductant was boldine. As most of the alkaloids chelated and reduced the ferric ions, additional experimental studies are needed to elucidate the biological relevance of these results, as chelation is expected to block reactive oxygen species formation, while reduction could have the opposite effect.