The Synthesis and Evaluation of Diethyl Benzylphosphonates as Potential Antimicrobial Agents

The impact of substituent at phenyl ring of diethyl benzylphosphonate derivatives on cytotoxic activity was studied. The organophosphonates were obtained based on developed palladium-catalyzed α, β-homodiarylation of vinyl esters protocol. The new synthetic pathway toward 1,2-bis(4-((diethoxyphosphoryl)methyl)phenyl)ethyl acetate was proposed which significantly improves the overall yield of the final product (from 1% to 38%). Several newly synthesized organophosphonates were tested as new potential antimicrobial drugs on model Escherichia coli bacterial strains (K12 and R2-R3). All tested compounds show the highest selectivity and activity against K12 and R2 strains. Preliminary cellular studies using MIC and MBC tests and digestion of Fpg after modification of bacterial DNA suggest that selected benzylphosphonate derivatives may have greater potential as antibacterial agents than typically used antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, bleomycin and cloxacillin. These compounds are highly specific for pathogenic E. coli strains based on the model strains used and may be engaged in the future as new substitutes for commonly used antibiotics, which is especially important due to the increasing resistance of bacteria to various drugs and antibiotics.     

Phase transitions in La1−x CaxMnO3−x/2 manganites

The crystal structure parameters and magnetic and electrical properties of La_1?x Ca_xMnO_3?x/2 reduced manganites with 0≤x≤0.5 are established. These investigations contribute to the understanding of magnetic interactions in manganites without Mn⁴⁺ ions. It is found that these manganites show a long-range antiferromagnetic order up to x=0.09 and transform into spin glasses at 0.09<x≤0.35. The compositions in the range 0.35<x≤0.5 show a strong increase in the spontaneous magnetization and critical point associated with the appearance of spontaneous magnetization and can therefore be viewed as inhomogenious ferromagnets. The magnetic and crystal structure peculiarities of La_0.5Ca_0.5MnO_2.75 are established by the neutron diffraction method. The strongly reduced samples show a large magnetoresistance below the point where the spontaneous magnetization develops. The magnetic phase diagram of La_1?x Ca_xMnO_3?x/2 is established by magnetization measurements. The magnetic behavior is interpreted assuming that the Mn³⁺-O-Mn³⁺ magnetic interaction is anisotropic (positive-negative) in the orbitally ordered phase and isotropic (positive) in the orbitally disordered phase. Introduction of the oxygen vacancies changes the magnetic interaction sign from positive to negative, thereby leading to a spin glass state in strongly reduced compounds. The results obtained reveal unusual features of strongly reduced manganites such as a large ferromagnetic component, a high magnetic ordering temperature, and a large magnetoresistance despite the absence of Mn³⁺-Mn⁴⁺ pairs. In order to explain these results, the oxygen vacancies are supposed to be ordered.     

Memory effects in collective dynamics of Brownian suspensions

We obtain macroscopic equations for average suspension velocity and particle current in a Brownian suspension valid on long time scales for which the memory effects are important. The coefficients in these equations depend solely on local properties of the medium. This formalism allows one to obtain well-defined theoretical expressions for transport coefficients, free of the integrals diverging with the size of the system. As an example, the expression for long-time collective diffusion coefficient is derived and the memory contribution to this coefficient is estimated.     

Prediction of a structural transition in the hard disk fluid

Starting from the second equilibrium equation in the BBGKY hierarchy under the Kirkwood superposition closure, we implement a new method for studying the asymptotic decay of correlations in the hard disk fluid in the high density regime. From our analysis and complementary numerical studies, we find that exponentially damped oscillations can occur only up to a packing fraction η(?)～0.718, a value that is in substantial agreement with the packing fraction, η～0.723, believed to characterize the transition from the ordered solid phase to a dense fluid phase, as inferred from Mak's Monte Carlo simulations [Phys. Rev. E 73, 065104 (2006)]. Next, we show that the same method of analysis predicts that the exponential damping of oscillations in the hard sphere fluid becomes impossible when λ=4nπσ(3)[1+H(1)]≥34.81, where H(1) is the contact value of the correlation function, n is the number density, and σ is the sphere diameter in exact agreement with the condition, λ≥34.8, which is first reported in a numerical study of the Kirkwood equation by Kirkwood et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 18, 1040 (1950)]. Finally, we show that our method confirms the absence of any structural transition in hard rods for the entire range of densities below close packing.